Stellar Snippets
The 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine went to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman who worked on mRNA vaccines.
Karikó is a Hungarian-American biochemist and Weissman is an American physician, both of whom are professors at the University of Pennsylvania.
Karikó moved to the U.S. in the 1970s, when mRNA research was new, after receiving an invitation from Temple University, Philadelphia.
She reportedly had to sell her car and stuff the money (around $1,200) into her daughter's teddy bear for safekeeping.
Apparently, Karikó and Weissman met accidentally in the late 1990s while photocopying research papers.
The scientists first published their mRNA research results in 2005, which later served as the foundation for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
The key discovery of their research was that mRNA could be altered and introduced into the body to activate its immune system.
Karikó celebrated the success of their trials with her favorite bag of Goobers chocolate-covered peanuts.