Dr. Katalin Karikó Awarded $100,000 Vilcek Prize for Research That Led to Development of mRNA Vaccines for COVID-19

dr. Katalin Karikó is the recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Biotechnology in 2022 in recognition of her scientific contributions that led directly to the development of the mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19.

The Vilcek Prize for Excellence is awarded to immigrants to the United States who have made a significant impact on both American society and world culture, and to individuals who are dedicated champions of immigrant issues. The award was introduced in 2019 as part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program to honor outstanding individuals whose work exemplifies the mission of the Vilcek Foundation.

Born in Szolnok, Hungary, Karikó moved to the United States in 1985 to pursue postgraduate studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. She is senior vice president at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals and an adjunct associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Dr. Karikó’s pioneering work is responsible for the development of new vaccines against COVID-19,” said Vilcek Foundation Co-founder, Chairman and CEO Jan Vilcek. “This formidable achievement, based on four decades of her research into the therapeutic use of messenger RNA, promises to stop the global spread of COVID-19 and save millions of lives.”

In the mid-2000s, Karikó, in collaboration with immunologist Drew Weissman, showed that modifying nucleosides — the building blocks of messenger RNA (mRNA) — makes mRNA safe for use in vaccination against infectious agents. At the time, researchers were pessimistic about the prospect of mRNA vaccines; synthetic mRNA that has not been modified is inherently fragile and can cause a severe inflammatory response when introduced into the human immune system. In groundbreaking studies, Karikó showed that using pseudouridine instead of uridine to make synthetic mRNA not only averts adverse immune responses, but also increases molecule stability and protein yield.

Karikó’s breakthrough on the stabilizing effect of modifying nucleosides in mRNA enabled scientists to develop mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, particularly those developed by Pfizer and Moderna. The vaccines have demonstrated greater than 94% efficacy in preventing symptomatic diseases in clinical trials and are now being deployed in the United States to turn the tide against the pandemic.

“The Vilcek Prize for Excellence was created to honor individuals whose contributions benefit society on a broad level,” said Marica Vilcek, co-founder, vice president and secretary of the Vilcek Foundation. “Dr. Karikó’s work has clearly had a huge impact on science and medicine, but the development of mRNA vaccines based on her research also has profound humanitarian significance. By enabling people and communities to return to normal activities and interact personally, her work has had a direct positive impact on global society.”

The Vilcek Prize for Excellence is awarded as part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program. The winners of the prize will receive a cash prize of $100,000 and a commemorative diploma. In recognition of the profound impact of Karikó’s work today, the Vilcek Foundation has made the decision to announce the Vilcek Prize for Excellence 2022 ahead of the rest of the Vilcek Foundation awards in 2022. The Vilcek Foundation recipients- awards for biomedical sciences and dance 2022 will be announced on September 7, 2021.