Meeting a scientific superhero

It's rare in a person's life to meet a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, or to see a Nobel Prize in person. On 2 April, the citizens of the University of Pécs had the honour of meeting the biochemist superhero whose research saved millions of people from the COVID-19 pandemic. This hero is none other than the Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Katalin Karikó.

There is almost no Hungarian who has not heard of Dr. Katalin Karikó, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023, together with Dr. Drew Weissman. The world-renowned researcher came to Pécs at the invitation of the National Laboratory of Virology of PTE, where she not only met with the leaders of PTE, but also gave a lecture to the public.

Needless to say, she was greeted with a round of applause as soon as she walked through the door. No mistake, her work revolutionised medicine and it was she who, together with Dr Drew Weissman, developed the method that allowed mRNA to be used safely in humans - the basis for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

An incredibly kind, selfless and humble individual, she spoke about her career in science, the challenges of research and the role of future generations of scientists, all with a unique sense of humour:

 "I realised when I was a child that I wanted to be a researcher. Of course, at that time I had never seen a researcher in my life,"

noted the Nobel laureate, referring to the fateful moment when his teacher brought a microscope into the classroom.

Everyone in the room, which was at its full capacity, listened attentively to the fascinating story of the researcher. For decades she had been rejected, tried to be led astray, and yet she never gave up because she believed in her work. Through it all, she persevered because she was confident that one day mRNA-based therapies could revolutionise medicine. She worked in this field for years - when no one believed it had a future. She was dismissed from many places, but she was never scared and repeatedly started her life over again, in Hungary, the United States or Germany.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from his presentation was that failure is not the enemy, it is the best teacher. New opportunities will appear on the horizon. When one door closes, another opens. True innovation requires patience, persistence and unrelenting faith, even if many people don't believe in you.

"It's important to believe in yourself and work hard to achieve your goals,

because if you don't believe in your own abilities, then it's not worth doing anything. One of the most important lessons we can learn from difficulties is to leave our comfort zone. Just like the heroes in fairy tales set out to try something new on their own, we need to leave our familiar boundaries to grow," the researcher stressed.

At the 2025 Diaspora Conference, Dr. Gábor L. Kovács, President of the Pécs Regional Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, remarked: “The researcher’s life story always brings a smile to my face. The daughter of a butcher from Kisújszállás who changed the world.” In his speech, he recalled the researcher’s thoughts on social responsibility, quoting her as follows: “During the Covid era, we saw that scientific knowledge was being shared on social media, and people perceived things differently than traditional researchers. Because of this,

it is all of our responsibility to inform and educate the public, and to explain why our research matters,” emphasized Dr. Katalin Karikó.