Breaking Through: My Life in Science: she is why we had Covid-19 vaccines

Breaking Through:  My Life in Science

By Katalin Kariko

Published 2023

Read Feb 2026

Katalin Kariko won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 with her collaborator Drew Weissman for their work on mRNA which was fundamental in enabling the COVID-19 vaccines and other human uses of mRNA technology.

This book was published prior to this recognition but after the COVID-19 vaccines had been produced and enabled stemming the human destruction caused the virus causing this disease. 

Kariko is a Hungarian scientist who overcame incredible challenges throughout her career.    She was born in 1955 to a butcher father and bookkeeper mother during a difficult period in Hungary.  She grew up in a home without running water but that always had some food due to her father’s decision to be a butcher.  Her laser focus on following her passion to learn enabled her to win scholarships to university, graduate school and a post-doctoral fellowship, all in Hungary. 

She came to the US with her husband and daughter in 1985 to accept a post-doctoral appointment at Temple University where new challenges faced her.   Her post-doctoral advisor decided she was too valuable to lose so told her he would have her deported if she left his lab.  She eventually was able to leave his laboratory and found her way to the University of Pennsylvania where she spent the rest of her academic career focused on mRNA for use in gene therapy and vaccines.  Unfortunately, the scientific community lost interest in mRNA, doubting its potential, and she was unable to gain the funding necessary to preserve her position.   In the meantime, her work with Drew Weissman solved the technological obstacles blocking the use of mRNA in therapy and vaccines and was patented, with UPenn owning the rights (a usual approach in academics and industry—the scientists’ names are on the patent, but their employer owns the rights).   She eventually took a position with BioTech RNA Pharmaceuticals which became Pfizer’s partner in designing and producing the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. 

This is a very short synopsis of her career and some of the human obstacles that faced her.  Her scientific approach and results were not the issue; funding challenges and the politics of academic science were the issue.  As a female scientist with a PhD and some experience in the academic world, this reader found the descriptions of her challenges fully believable but surprisingly told with little rancor. 

I fully recommend reading this book to get her full story and to hear how she describes these human driven challenges.  She also includes exquisite and readily understood descriptions of the technological obstacles of using mRNA for vaccines and therapuetics and how they were overcome.  She also tells the exciting story of the creation and success of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. 

Since the audiobook was read by a Hungarian actress, this reader felt she was hearing the words delivered by the author herself which further enhanced this reader’s experience.