Story of an amazing lady scientist - the creator of mRNA vaccines

The real hero in the race to make mRNA technology functional was a Hungarian biochemist working in USA, Dr. Katalin Kariko.

 Story of an amazing lady scientist - the creator of mRNA vaccines

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• The story: As the pandemic spiralled out of control even through 2021, the world realised that fast vaccination is the only way out of the Covid pandemic. With the focus on "vaccines", the nations struggled to get enough types and quantities out in time.
• Lady scientists: Many sterling contributions from women scientists made the rapid rollout of Covid vaccines possible viz., Sarah Gilbert (AstraZeneca Covishield), K Sumathy (Covaxin India), Hanneke Schuitemaker (J&J), Elena Smolyarchuk (Sputnik V).
• mRNA hero: The real hero in this battle was Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian biochemist working in USA, who led the work on Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines (one of the most effective). Her work on the mRNA method predates the 2020 pandemic by many years, though.

1. Her key contribution is the application of the "mRNA technique" that is now revolutionising entire biotechnology and drug discovery
2. The mRNA (messenger-Ribonucleic Acid) molecule is made by animal cells and gives signals to cells about the proteins to make
3. It carries genetic information to cells for 'protein synthesis', the most crucial physiological function of a body
4. Dr Kariko thought of modifying mRNA in labs to use their code-carrying ability to trigger manufacture of specific proteins by cells (to generate specific antibodies to fight specific antigens (disease-causing microbes))

• Simple yet revolutionary: The idea was simple - tweak the "message" in the mRNA and give a customised signal to cells (a very bold idea!). Dr Kariko literally played God with a cellular functional that's the foundation of everything; getting a grant was nearly impossible for her for some time. She tried all alone, in a risky professional endeavour, with no one trusting her; then came the chance encounter with a powerful scientist who agreed to share resources with her (at UPen).
• A long jouerny: Her experiments began, and modified mRNA was tried on mice, and it worked! But no one celebrated (inertia). Then another chance encounter (with founder of BioNTech) happened, and she joined the firm, to make an influenza vaccine. And then came the pandemic! The firm immediately started working on a Covid vaccine using mRNA technology.
• Success, at last: Two firms now were set to make the vaccine - first was Pfizer BioNTech, and then Moderna. In the limelight now, it is easy to overlook the decades of struggle she endured, never losing hope of making it finally.
• Lessons from her life: First - Clearly, women can be as good as men, at science and research, but that isn't accepted even in the Western world so far! Second - New ideas, when found challenging all established norms, must not be rejected out of the hand. Third - Dr Kariko's invention surely deserves a Nobel prize for being so revolutionary, and practicable!

 

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