Meet Katalin Kariko, the scientist behind the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be approved vaccine in the USA!

The emergency use authorization of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by the USA FDA earlier this month was the success of 4 decades of work of the American-Hungarian scientist Katalin Kariko. She has been doing research on genetic code RNA and told The Daily Telegraph that her first reaction was one of redemption. 

Katalin Kariko and her reaction

American-Hungarian scientist Katalin Kariko was the main person behind the development and manufacture of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that was the first to get the green signal from the USA FDA for general public use. Katalin shared her reaction with the Daily Telegraph from her home in Philadelphia. She said: 

“I was grabbing the air, I got so excited I was afraid that I might die or something,”

“When I am knocked down I know how to pick myself up, but I always enjoyed working… I imagined all of the diseases I could treat.”

Katalin Kariko [Source: France 24]

Katalin Kariko-age, early life, and journey from Hungary to America

Katalin is 65 now being born in January 1955 in the town called Szolnok in the central region of Hungary. Her family was Christian. Her father worked as a butcher and she grew up in the nearby Kisujszellas on the Great Hungarian Plain. She had a great liking for science from her childhood days. 

Katalin studied at the University of Szeged’s Biological Research Centre and got a PhD degree. She began her career at the age of 23. Her main field of interest was RNA. But the laboratory where she worked lacked resources and in 1985, she got the pink slip from her university. Katalin started looking for work in the USA and obtained a job at Temple University in Philadelphia. 

Katalin [Source: France 24]

Since Hungary did not allow any citizen to carry money abroad at that time, she hid the money obtained after selling her family car in her daughter's teddy bear. It went undetected and she reached the USA. She said: 

“It was a one-way ticket,”

“We didn’t know anybody.”

Katalin and her work on RNA

Katalin's main focus of work was RNA but at that time it was considered not of much importance. She failed to get good promotions and landed the role of a researcher due to it. She faced sexism at her workplace but she did not lose hope. Katalin says: 

“From outside, it seemed crazy, struggling, but I was happy in the lab. My husband always, even today, says, ‘This is entertainment for you.’ I don’t say that I go to work. It is like a play.”

She took her work as enjoyment and worked hard on her research. She was at the University of Pennsylvania and could raise her daughter well. Her daughter Susan is a talented child and had won gold on the US rowing team in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Also, read COVID-19 vaccine of Pfizer-side-effects expected!

Katalin's collaboration on RNA with immunologist Drew Weissman fetched fruits and they were able to make RNA into a form with lipid nanoparticles that could enter the cells undetected. This was the basis of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus. Despite the initial success, Katalin is waiting for larger mass immunization to know the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine. She told CNN: 

“Then, I will really be celebrating,”