KATALIN KARIKÓ, PH.D.

University of Pennsylvania, Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery, 

Perelman School of Medicine

2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Dr. Katalin Karikó is a professor at her alma mater, University of Szeged, Hungary, and adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked for 24 years. She is a former senior vice president at BioNTech SE, Mainz, Germany, where she worked from 2013 to 2022. For four decades, her research has focused on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA

for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and co-discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA, which widened the therapeutic potential of mRNA.

Her patents, co-invented with Drew Weissman on nucleoside-modified uridines in mRNA, were used to create the FDA-approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna to fight the pandemic. For her achievements, she received many prestigious awards, including the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her daughter, Susan Francia, is a 2-time Olympic Champion.