Katalin Karikó

Early life and education

Katalin Karikó was born in Szolnok, Her father János was a butcher, and her mother was a bookkeeper. She excelled in science during her primary education, earning third place in Hungary in a biology competition.

Karikó obtained a BSc degree in biology in 1978 and her PhD in biochemistry in 1982, both from the University of Szeged. She worked with Jenő Tomasz and continued her postdoctoral research at the Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre (BRC) of Hungary. From 1978 until 1985, she was listed as an intelligence asset by the Communist Hungarian secret police, something she says she was blackmailed into out of fear of repercussions on her career or reprisals against her father. She claims that she did not provide them with information nor was she active as an agent.

In 1985, her lab at the BRC lost its funding, Karikó left Hungary for the United States with her husband and two-year-old daughter, and exchanging currency on the black market.

Career Between 1985 and 1988, Karikó was a postdoctoral fellow at Temple University in Philadelphia. Karikó participated in a clinical trial in which patients with AIDS, hematologic diseases, and chronic fatigue syndrome were treated with double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). This was considered groundbreaking research, as the molecular mechanism of interferon induction by dsRNA was not known, although the antiviral and antineoplastic effects of interferons were well-documented.

In 1988, Karikó accepted a job at Johns Hopkins University without first informing her lab advisor Suhadolnik of her intention to leave Temple, as recounted in Gregory Zuckerman's 2021 book A Shot to Save the World. Suhadolnik told her that if she went to Johns Hopkins, he would have her deported, and subsequently reported her to U.S. immigration authorities, claiming that she was "illegally" in the United States. In the time it took her to successfully challenge the resulting extradition order, Johns Hopkins withdrew the job offer. Suhadolnik "continued bad-mouthing Karikó, making it impossible for her to get a new position" at other institutions, until she met a researcher at Bethesda Naval Hospital who "had his own difficult history with Suhadolnik". Karikó subsequently confirmed that the incident had happened as Zuckerman described, but emphasized that "more importantly I was always grateful to [Suhadolnik for] sending me the IAP66 form in 1985, for the opportunity he gave me to work in his lab", noting that "when I gave a lecture [at Temple, a] couple of years later, I thanked him for the science I learned from him." From 1988 to 1989, she worked at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland where she worked with signal protein interferons. Ever since, mRNA-based therapy has been Karikó's primary research interest. However, in the 1990s, mRNA fell out of favor as many researchers, biotechs, and pharmaceutical companies doubted its potential. Though supported by Elliot Barnathan (who left UPenn in 1997) and David Langer (who then hired her), Karikó found it difficult to gain funding. She was initially on track to become a full professor, but after repeated grant rejections the university demoted her in 1995. Nevertheless, she chose to remain and continue her mRNA research. They began to exchange ideas and then to collaborate. Weissman's funding was critical in helping Karikó to continue and extend her research by replacing uridine with pseudouridine. Their key finding of a chemical modification of mRNA to render it non-immunogenic was rejected by the journals Nature and Science, but eventually accepted by the publication Immunity. They demonstrated its effectiveness in animals.

Karikó and Weissman founded a small company, RNARx, and in 2006 and 2013 received patents for the use of several modified nucleosides to reduce the antiviral immune response to mRNA. Soon afterward, the University of Pennsylvania sold the intellectual property license to Gary Dahl, the head of a lab supply company that eventually became Cellscript. Weeks later, Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital company backing Moderna, contacted her in an attempt to license the patent, at which point Karikó had to tell them it was no longer available. Initially, MacLachlan and Tekmira turned away from the collaboration. Karikó wanted to team up with Ian MacLachlan because he was the leader of a team that helped advance mRNA technology. Karikó was working on establishing the formulated lipid nanoparticle delivery system that encapsulates mRNA in a dense particle through a mixing process.

In early 2013, Karikó heard of Moderna's $240 million deal with AstraZeneca to develop a Vascular endothelial growth factor mRNA. Karikó realized that she would not get a chance to apply her experience with mRNA at the University of Pennsylvania, so she took a role as vice president at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals

During Nobel Week 2023, Karikó remarked in an interview, "I dreamt about doing research, not getting an award," emphasizing her lifelong dedication to discovery over recognition and the central role of perseverance in her scientific path.

Scientific contributions Karikó's research and its specializations have a broad impact with potential implications for areas such as the generation of pluripotent stem cells, and messenger RNA-based gene therapy, as well as "a new class of drugs".

Karikó's work laid the foundation for BioNTech and Moderna to create therapeutic mRNAs that do not induce an immune response. and by Moderna. The mRNA vaccines were developed and approved for use at unprecedented speed, and demonstrated over 90% efficacy. In addition to vaccines for infectious diseases, mRNA has potential applications in treatment of some cancers, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases including ischemia.

Awards and honors

Karikó has received more than 130 international awards and honors for her pioneering and globally significant work in biochemistry.

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute announced on 2 October 2023, that the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for the development of mRNA technology.

Katalin Karikó donated the more than half a million dollars she received from her Nobel Prize to her former alma mater, the University of Szeged on 16 April 2024.

In 2022, Karikó was awarded VinFuture Grand Prize from the VinFuture Foundation.

In 2022, Karikó was awarded The Novo Nordisk Prize along with Drew Weissman for their pioneering forces for more than a decade in discovering a nucleoside-modified form of mRNA.

In 2023, Karikó was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her research into messenger RNA.

Karikó was named in the 2024 Time 100 influential people in health.

In June 2024, Karikó received the Paul Karrer Medal from the University of Zurich.

In December 2024, Katalin Karikó was included on the BBC's 100 Women list.

In May 2025, Karikó was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her pioneering contributions to mRNA vaccine research.

Starting in 2026, she has served as a member of the Advisory Board to Hungary's Minister of Health, Zsolt Hegedűs. She was also named to Forbes Hungary's "50 Most Influential Hungarian Women, 2026" list.

Personal life

Karikó is married to Béla Francia, and they are the parents of two-time Olympic gold medalist rower Susan Francia.

Media visibility and memoir In April 2021, The New York Times featured her career, which laid the groundwork for mRNA vaccines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November 2021, the US online publication Glamour named her a Woman of the Year.

In 2023, two children's books were released about her: Never Give Up: Dr. Kati Karikó and the Race for the Future of Vaccines, by Debbie Dadey and Juliana Oakley, and Kati's Tiny Messengers: Dr. Katalin Karikó and the Battle Against COVID-19, by Megan Hoyt and Vivien Mildenberger.

Katalin Karikó's autobiography was published by Crown Publishing Group on 10 October 2023, just days after she won the Nobel Prize. It is titled Breaking Through: My Life in Science. The book became the best-selling non-fiction book in Hungary in 2023, and was awarded the Libri Literary Prize in June 2024 and the ASIMOV Prize in May 2025. By this time, her memoir had been translated into 9 languages.

Karikó's book Breaking Through: My Life in Science has been published in the following editions:

Breaking Through. My Life in Science; Penguin Random House, New York, 2023 Áttörések. Életem és a tudomány; ford. Fenyvesi Anna; Helikon, Budapest, 2023 Breaking Through. My Life in Science; The Bodley Head, London, 2024 Nonostante tutto. La mia vita nella scienza; Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2024 突破：我的科學人生; 譯林出版社, 2024 Rompiendo Barreras: Mi Vida Dedicada a la Ciencia; Geoplaneta, Barcelona, 2024 終止病毒浩劫的女力英雄; 方言文化出版事業有限公司, 2024 Durchbruch: Mein Leben für die Forschung; btb Verlag, München, 2024 ブレイクスルー ノーベル賞科学者カタリン・カリコ自伝; 河出書房新社, 2024 Ne jamais renoncer: Vaccins ARN, Covid : L'autobiographie de la femme qui a sauvé des millions de vies; Quanto, Lausanne, 2024 돌파의 시간 mRNA로 세상을 바꾼 커털린 커리코의 삶과 과학; 까치, 서울시, 2024 Prelomno otkriće: Moj život u nauci; Službeni glasnik, Београд, 2025 Đột phá: cuộc đời khoa học của tôi; Dân Trí, Hanoi, 2025 Dincolo de granite; ford.: Iulia Renata Sîrbu; Prior Media, Bukarest, 2026

Selected publications

Katalin Karikó; Breaking Through: My Life in Science (autobiography), 10 October 2023, Crown Publishing Group, translated in over 9 languages. English edition: