Yasmina Kattou // Photo credit: Mandel NGAN / AFP 20:05 p.m., October 02, 2023
On Monday, the Nobel committee rewarded the two researchers who, thanks to their work, have already saved millions of lives by developing a type of vaccine based on messenger RNA. We owe them to the Hungarian Katalina Kariko and the American Drew Weissman. Research that does not date from the Covid-19 pandemic, but from the 90s.Katalin Kariko's story is not all about success. For many years, she worked in the shadows, alone in her corner. In the beginning, the entire scientific community was mainly interested in DNA, but the biochemist, recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, is convinced of the revolution that RNA (for Ribo Nucleic Acid) could bring to medicine.
A photocopier encounter that changes history
RNA works this way: we inject into our cells a molecule that transmits a message to our body, that of making antibodies against a certain virus for example. The researcher then made several applications for grants to advance her work. Applications that are all rejected by the University of Pennsylvania where Katalin Kariko was going to access the professorship. "They demoted me, expecting me to leave," she said.
Determined, the scientist continues her research, alone, until a certain meeting, at the photocopier of the university in 1998 which will advance the History of science. She meets Drew Weissman. The latter explains that he is working on a vaccine against AIDS, based on DNA. A project that does not succeed. Katalin Kariko recommends that he move towards RNA.
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Together and in about fifteen years, they succeed in making an RNA accepted by the immune system. Today, RNA is used for vaccines to fight against Covid-19, but also as a track for treatments against lung or pancreatic cancer.