Katalin Karikò, senior vice president of BioNTech and pioneering researcher of mRNA technology that led to Covid vaccines, was awarded today, at the inauguration of the academic year of Humanitas University in Milan, an honorary degree in medicine and surgery.
The recognition came for the "extraordinary contribution" she gave and was delivered by Marco Montorsi, rector of Humanitas University.
A Hungarian biochemist and now a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, in the United States, Katalin Karikò has dedicated her life, fighting against difficulties and skepticism, to the development of a gene therapy based on mRNA, or messenger RNA, a molecule that encodes information. genetics contained in the DNA.
While traditional vaccines use a weakened version of the virus, those using the new technology contain fragments of mRNA that cause cells to produce antigens, which are proteins recognized as foreign and capable of activating the immune system.
Used by Pfizer / BioNtech and Moderna to develop vaccines against Sars-CoV-2, mRNA technology has made it possible to reduce production costs and distribute large quantities of doses very quickly.
(Unioneonline / vl)