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Katalin Karikó

File:Katalin_Karikó_by_Michel_2024_02.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Katalin Karikó

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Also known as Karikó Katalin, K. Karikó

Hungarian biochemist

OverviewAI-generated

Katalin Karikó is a Hungarian-American biochemist, researcher, university teacher, and inventor. Born in Szolnok in 1955, she is educated at the University of Szeged and speaks Hungarian and English. Her field of work includes messenger RNA and biochemistry. She has been employed by the University of Pennsylvania, BioNTech, Temple University, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Karikó resides in Philadelphia and Abington Township. She is a member of the Academia Europaea, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her notable works include the book *Breaking Through*. She has received the Rosenstiel Award, the Széchenyi Prize, the Wilhelm Exner Medal, and the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research. She is recognized in the Nobel Laureates, Nobel Medicine, National Inventors Hall Of Fame, American Academy Arts Sciences, and Time 100 collections.

Synthesized by Vinony from 30 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Firecrawl, Nobel Prize, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
1

Top works

  • Breaking Through

via Open Library + Wikidata

Nobel Prize

  • The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine2023

    “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”

    Shared · 1/2 portion

NobelPrize.org →

Official website

pennmedicine.org →

Link to the official site · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Katalin
Gender
female
Citizenship
United States
Place of birth
Szolnok
Child
Susan Francia
Occupation
inventor
Educated at
University of Szeged
Employer
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Languages spoken
English language
Native language
Hungarian
Award
Helmholtz Medal
Field of work
biochemistry
Official website
www.pennmedicine.org/providers/profile/katalin-kariko
Image
Katalin Karikó at the United States Embassy Sweden, 2023 Nobel Reception (cropped).jpg
Residence
Abington Township
Show 8 more facts
date of birth
1955-01-17
on focus list of Wikimedia project
WikiProject COVID-19
social media followers
45326
name in native language
Karikó Katalin
Commons category
Katalin Karikó
member of
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
P8168
list of state leaders in 1086
interested in
biochemistry
Sources (13)

via Wikidata · CC0

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Katalin "Kati" Karikó (born 17 January 1955) is a Hungarian biochemist who specializes in ribonucleic acid (RNA)-mediated mechanisms, particularly in vitro-transcribed messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein replacement therapy. Karikó laid the scientific groundwork for mRNA vaccines, overcoming major obstacles and skepticism in the scientific community. Karikó received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 for her work, along with American immunologist Drew Weissman.

Karikó co-founded and was CEO of RNARx from 2006 to 2013. From 2013 to 2022, she was associated with BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, first as a vice president and promoted to senior vice president in 2019. In 2022, she left BioNTech to devote more time to research. In 2021, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Szeged in Hungary, where she has since become a professor. While Karikó has also been associated with the University of Pennsylvania, which would benefit financially from her eventual discovery, the university had actively discouraged her from pursuing research by underfunding and deprioritizing work on mRNA. After being demoted by the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, Karikó was never granted tenure and joined BioNTech in 2013 after the university had declined to reinstate her.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Katalin Karikó” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (5)

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