In the first interview after the announcement of her Nobel prize win, Katalin Kariko talked about how she was “kicked out” of the University of Pennsylvania ten years ago, her advice to women scientists, and the mantra she follows in life.
The winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Katalin Kariko, said she was “kicked out” of the University of Pennsylvania ten years ago and was forced to retire. She joined the university in 1989 as an adjunct professor until her departure in 2013. Soon afterwards, she joined BioNTech, the German biotechnology company which partnered with Pfizer in 2020 to develop mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.
Kariko’s Nobel prize, which she shared with Drew Weissman, was for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.
In her first reaction to her Nobel win, Kariko told Adam Smith, the Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach, that she thought “somebody was joking”.
Speaking about her journey on mRNA research, Katalin Kariko, who is now 68, said “I have conducted all her experiments with my own hands” at the age of 58. “I was 58 years old and I was still culturing plasmids and feeding cells”. She added that for nine years, she frequently commuted to Germany, where the company was located, from the US.
Kariko also paid tribute to her mother who passed away in 2018, and said, “My mother always listened to the announcement of the Nobel Prize and she would tell me, the next time they announce it, maybe you will get it. You know, I was laughing. I was not even a professor and didn’t have a team. I told my mom, don’t listen to it. And she said, ‘But you work so hard’ and I told her that all scientists work very hard”.
The Nobel prize winner also had some advice for other women scientists. She said they can have it all without choosing between their research and their families. “As a woman and a mother, I try to tell fellow female scientists that you don’t have to choose between having a family. You can have it, you don’t have to just assist your child. Your child will watch you and then they will do it because that’s what counts — the example that you present,” said Katalin Kariko.