In his presentation on Tuesday, the biochemist – in which he reported on the events of last December’s Nobel Week in Stockholm – announced that
donates a copy of his award to the university, as well as the more than half a million dollars associated with the award, which will benefit outstanding teachers and students.
The researcher said that many people worked on the vaccine against the coronavirus and the research that made it possible, so he wants to share the award and the amount received for it with the next generation.
The copy of the Nobel Prize was placed in the new permanent exhibition presenting the life and work of Katalin Karikó, which opened in the study and information center of SZTE.
Addressing the students at the opening of the exhibition, the researcher explained that he is confident that the awarded prize and the support created through his donation will inspire the teachers and students to be the best. As he said, according to his plans, the prize he founded will be awarded to one teacher-researcher and one student each year, and he wants to hand over the awards personally.
At her press conference, Katalin Karikó said that in the past three years she had spent most of her time at airports and on airplanes, visiting cities that she had not seen anything of. In the future, however, he wants to concentrate on his work.
He stressed that making modified mRNA is very cheap and fast. Currently, more than 250 clinical trials using mRNA technology are ongoing worldwide. Vaccines against viruses are the most advanced, so vaccines are being developed against influenza, HIV or monkeypox, but also to prevent diseases caused by bacteria or parasites such as tuberculosis and malaria. The procedures that would make a vaccine using antigens present in several tumors, as well as the individualized procedures that would help the given patient to avoid the recurrence of the tumor in the case of pancreatic cancer or melanoma, are promising, but the solution is also being sought for the treatment of peanut or dust mite allergy.
At the ceremony welcoming Katalin Karikó, Rector László Rovó said that with the vaccine against the coronavirus, doctors got a tool in their hands with which they could effectively fight the pandemic. And the Nobel Prize-winning discovery that laid the foundation for the creation of the vaccine will bring huge changes in healthcare in the coming decades, because new treatments that significantly improve the quality of life may appear.
The rector presented a university lab coat to Katalin Karikó. As he said, the university’s research professor will use it soon, since he has had his own office in Szeged since last year, the same one that once belonged to Albert Szent-Györgyi.
Cover image source: Portfolio