I am going to talk about two folks today that really deserve our thanks.  Oh, sure, they won the Nobel Prize- but their path was pretty perturbed.

I understand their predicament.  When I was developing my medical device, the whole world thought I was crazy (except for a very, very few senior folks in the field.)   I was perpetually being told that can’t be- I am exceeding the solubility limit.  Yet, it was working.  Thankfully, I persevered and brought my product to market, where it solved a critical nephrology need.

Now, imagine you are a professor.  Working on what you consider to be a fantastic new solution.  But, your university denigrates your work, banishes you to the outskirts and cuts your pay.  Oh and you are a woman to boot, which means much of your efforts are routinely discounted.  (It didn’t help matters that this scientist could easily analyze others’ works and recognize the flaws therein.)

But, then you find another scientist, willing to take a chance with you.  So, it’s a little easier to proceed, but not by much.

You might not know this, but this attitude is way too routine in academia.  Where getting funding is a terrible burden, getting published is just as difficult- especially when you are working in an area that the rest of the world knows little about.

That was the situation for Dr. Katalin Kariko- and her collaborator Drew Weissman.  They were developing a process to modify mRNA (messenger RNA) to yield vaccines and drugs.  You know, the technology that undergirds the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.  (The two researchers had hoped to capitalize on their own invention, but the University demanded a price they couldn’t afford, so it is now the owner of the technology they developed.)   The technology that now provides millions of dollars to the coffers of the University of Pennsylvania that tortured the researchers.  The technology that led to the awarding of the 2023 Nobel Prize to those two brilliant individuals  (They won the Lasker Award last year.).  Not to mention the world’s thanks for the COVID19 vaccines that is based upon their findings.

You should also know that Kariko is still not a professor at Penn. (After a decades-worth of stints at Temple University, Uniformed Services University, and Pennsylvania, she was still dedicating her work on mRNA.  She actually was terminated about a decade ago, moving to Germany to work with BioNTech.) Nope- she is an adjunct professor! (I am guessing that will be corrected now so that Penn can further capitalize on the success of the Kariko (and Weissman) .

So, exactly what did the duo discover that merited the Nobel in basic science discovery?  They determined who mRNA interacts with the immune system of the body.  It enabled scientists to target proteins by vaccines, using nucleoside-base modifications. Their work- using Kariko’s background in RNA biochemistry and Weissman’s expertise in immunology,  they continued working  together for years (since 1997), persistent in seeking the answer, how to devise treatments using mRNA technology.

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