Abington resident and scientist Katalin Karikó, PhD, is one of the two recipients of the 2021 Lasker Award. Karikó, along with fellow recipient Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, developed the mRNA technology that advanced the COVID-19 Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines.

Since 1945, the Lasker Awards have been given to those who make a major contribution to medical science. The Lasker Awards are sometimes viewed as a precursor to the Nobel Prize as 86 Lasker recipients have gone on to become Nobel laureates.

Karikó and Weissman’s work was a vital component to the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. From Genengnews.com:

Although translational applications of mRNA technology are in their infancy, Karikó realized the potential for mRNA as a therapeutic decades ago. She started working on RNA in 1978, during her graduate work. The hurdles that needed clearing to bring the unstable molecule to its therapeutic potential were overcome because of Karikó and Weismann’s work. They worked together, modifying the RNA, so that it could be delivered and used by human cells without being recognized by the immune system of the body. Their decades of work meant that the COVID-19 vaccines could be developed at breakneck speed when the pandemic started.

Along with her husband and daughter, Karikó emigrated from Hungary in 1985 to Philadelphia. Her daughter, Susan Francia, is a two-time Olympic gold medal winner.

Photo courtesy of Rosta Tibor/MTVA