Katalin Karikó
Hungarian-American biochemist and Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine.
Quick facts
- Current role
- Biochemist; professor at the University of Szeged
- Organization
- University of Szeged
- Country
- Hungary
- Sector
- Health
- Forum
- Rhine Group
Katalin Karikó is a Hungarian-American biochemist whose research on messenger RNA made mRNA vaccines possible. She worked for decades at the University of Pennsylvania, where her collaboration with Drew Weissman showed how nucleoside modifications allow mRNA to avoid an unwanted immune response.
She later served as a senior vice president at BioNTech. In 2023 she shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Drew Weissman for those discoveries, which enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
Education
- University of Szeged, PhD in biochemistry