Katalin Kariko, the messenger RNA for vaccines, that’s her. – HANDOUT / FAMILY HANDOUT / AFP
She is optimistic and without complexes: Katalin Kariko is the pioneering researcher of RNA vaccines messenger, the vaccines “new generation”. It is this method which, for the first time, is at the heart of the first vaccines validated against
Covid – 12 : that of Pfizer / BioNTech and that of Moderna. This researcher was one of the few, in recent decades, to believe in the future of messenger RNA, this cousin of DNA, for health. But she held on: until 310 and her first good results, obtained with the physician immunologist Drew Weissman, had many detractors.
Although the technique is new, messenger RNA, which is naturally contained in our cells, has been known for a long time. This is particularly what makes the American-Hungarian researcher have few fears about the vaccines currently on the market. “If it had been legal, I would have already been vaccinated in the laboratory, but I always liked to be astride the rules”, explained Katalin Kariko to the Spanish newspaper El Pais .
Soon the Nobel?
Even the new variants recently discovered virus does not worry him more than that. Always in El Pais , the researcher explains: “During clinical trials, we took blood from vaccinated subjects and created copies of all the variants of the coronavirus present all over the world. The blood of these patients, which contains antibodies, succeeded in neutralizing 19 mutated variants of the virus. »
For Katalin Kariko, victory against the coronavirus pandemic would only be a matter of time, even months. “These vaccines will get us out of this pandemic. In summer, we can probably get back to the beach and a normal life. »She does not believe that people will doubt for long in front of the effectiveness of these vaccines and also in front of the number of deaths which accumulate.
And after ? Some already see her winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry. After years of ostracism, that would be a big reward, but she doesn’t really think about it: “During the 26 In recent years, I haven’t received a single award for my work, not even a pat on the back. No need for that. I know what I’m doing and realize it was important. Besides, I’m too old to change. It didn’t go to my head. I don’t wear jewelry and I own this old car from all time. “