'This is so inspiring': Netizens on Nobel Prize winner Katalin Kariko's words while leaving her job at UPenn

The world couldn't stop gushing over the marvelous contribution of Nobel Prize winner Katalin Kariko towards mRNA technology, which underpins the effective Covid-19 vaccines today. However, her career's backstory reveals a persistent struggle, highlighted by a demotion at her previous workplace.

Over 10 years ago, her focus on mRNA research eventually led to her being sidelined, ultimately demoted at the University of Pennsylvania.

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their pioneering work on mRNA vaccines on October 2.

While speaking to AFP, Kariko revealed that in 1995, she was demoted by UPenn as she was unable to get financial grants to continue her research. "I was up for promotion, and then they just demoted me and expected that I would walk out the door," she told AFP in an interview from her home in Philadelphia in December 2020.

Rather than letting this demotivate her, she held onto her belief in the potential of mRNA technology. As she left her position in 2013 because she was denied one grant after another, her words reflect a remarkable conviction and self-belief against all odds. She said, "One day, this will save lives." The Hungary-born scientist left her lab at the institute for the last time.

Kariko left a prophetic message on the last day at her former job, according to a profile published recently in Glamour. As her boss came to bid her farewell, despite unspoken thoughts of her employer's error, Kariko issued a prescient admonition for the future of the lab, “In the future, this lab will be a museum. Don’t touch it," she said.

She had her retaliation when she ran across her old boss in 2021, by which time Kariko's studies had given her a household name in the medical community.

Kariko's former supervisor informed her that he was planning to give a lecture on her. According to Glamour, she asked him, "You will talk about me?"

The focus of the presentation, he claimed, would be on Kariko's contribution to one of the greatest "scientific and humanitarian achievements" of our time, and how he missed it and let Kariko walk away.

“If you know about 10 years ago, I was here in October because I was kicked out from UPenn, was forced to retire,” she said during the interview.

Netizens were inspired to know her side of the story. "One thing academia loves is accolades.  Prof Karikó was removed from tenure track at Penn because her research didn't attract the level of funding to be of "faculty quality". Look how Penn will claim her and her work as theirs because she has now won a Nobel prize," an X user wrote.

Another X user one commented, "This is an inspiring story of a recent noble prize winner, Katalin Kariko. She was demoted by the Penn University and her patents were sold by University, her papers on mRNA were desk rejected by nature and science, she still prevailed. Nothing short of a movie story."

"Of course I’ve read it. Karikó lamenting how MacLachlan may have viewed her pursuit of monetization is irrelevant to me. The point is her creep bosses slow rolled all this and undermined people’s confidence in science for short term finance garbage," a third user wrote.

"This is really sad. Not that these great scientists got the Nobel prize, but that @Penn demoted Karikó in 1995 due to the work that would eventually award her the Nobel prize. They didn't think the research was of any good quality but now all of a sudden they say it's great???," another one wrote.

Many netizens said University of Pennsylvania owes the Nobel winner an apology before taking any credit for the coveted prize.

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