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title: ""The coronavirus vaccines wouldn’t be possible without advancements…"
date: 2021-01-03
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
---

# "The coronavirus vaccines wouldn’t be possible without advancements…

*January 3, 2021 · Facebook*

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[https://billypenn.com/2020/12/29/university-pennsylvania-covid-vaccine-mrna-kariko-demoted-biontech-pfizer/](https://billypenn.com/2020/12/29/university-pennsylvania-covid-vaccine-mrna-kariko-demoted-biontech-pfizer/){target="_blank"}
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\"The coronavirus vaccines wouldn't be possible without advancements developed at the University of Pennsylvania, which has been touting its contribution in news releases and TV ads. But it turns out the school wasn't very supportive of the scientist who led the charge.\
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Former Penn researcher Dr. Katalin Karikó's dedication to the promise of using messenger RNA (mRNA) in medicine paved the way for the vaccines now giving society hope.\
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As Karikó worked for decades toward adapting mRNA to bring out its therapeutic qualities, her efforts were repeatedly dismissed by the university, she has said. When she was unable to find funding, Penn demoted her, taking her off the track to full professorship.\
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"Usually, at that point, people just say goodbye and leave because it's so horrible," Karikó, known as Kati, told Stat News in November.\
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The breakthrough finally came in 2005, after Karikó found a colleague whose passion for the topic mirrored hers in Dr. Drew Weissman. Now 65, she's a VP at a biotech firm. Both she and Weissman, a professor at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, were quoted in a recent release from the university.\
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"I feel humbled, and happy," says Karikó in the release, referred to as an adjunct professor. "I am more \[of\] a basic scientist, but I always wanted to do something to help patients.".\
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[https://billypenn.com/2020/12/29/university-pennsylvania-covid-vaccine-mrna-kariko-demoted-biontech-pfizer/](https://billypenn.com/2020/12/29/university-pennsylvania-covid-vaccine-mrna-kariko-demoted-biontech-pfizer/){target="_blank"}
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