Katalin Karikó

Born

1955 · Szolnok, Hungary (raised in Kisújszállás)

Roots

Hungarian; emigrated to the US at 30

Family

Working class

Butcher father; childhood home was a one-room adobe house without running water.

Education

University of Szeged (PhD, biochemistry)

Started with

~$1,000

Proceeds from selling the family car, sewn into her daughter's teddy bear to evade currency limits when emigrating in 1985.

Affiliations & societies

None documented.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1978 · age 23
   PhD track in Szeged

   First in her family to attend university.

2. 1985 · age 30
   Lab loses funding; emigrates~$1,000

   Flies to Philadelphia with her husband and two-year-old daughter — savings hidden in a teddy bear.

3. 1989 · age 34
   University of Pennsylvania

   Research faculty, working on messenger RNA.

4. 1995 · age 40
   Demoted

   Taken off the tenure track after repeated grant rejections for mRNA work.

5. 1998 · age 43
   Meets Drew Weissman

   A chance conversation at a photocopier starts the collaboration.

6. 2005 · age 50
   Key breakthrough

   Modified nucleosides stop mRNA from triggering immune attack; the paper draws little attention at the time.

7. 2013 · age 58
   Leaves Penn for BioNTech

   Joins the then-small German company as a senior vice president.

8. 2020 · age 65
   COVID vaccines

   The Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna shots build on the modified-mRNA work.

9. 2023 · age 68
   Nobel Prize in Medicine

   Shared with Weissman.