After winning numerous scientific prizes, Katalin Karikó is looking for ways to share her success with the younger generations. One of her projects is benefitting an entire country.

Fame and money in the world of science are distributed rather unevenly: there are a few American universities that everyone in the world knows - and then a few British ones that regularly claim the top spots in rankings. Yet research is also being done elsewhere that has the potential to change the world. For example, at universities in Eastern Central Europe, such as Szeged. It was here that Nobel Prize winner Katalin Karikó began her career 52 years ago, studying biology.

"The teaching back then was excellent," Karikó recalls in her autobiography. While the reputation may not have been as great as that of more well-known universities, she never felt that she had received a poorer education. However, Karikó once told this newspaper that her background was indeed a disadvantage at the top universities in the U.S.: "People said about me that I came from a "who's-ever-heard-of-it" university." This is an experience still shared today by many researchers coming from smaller universities.

But that is about to change in the near future. The leadership of the University of Szeged is working hard to turn their institution into an internationally recognized center. A key role is played by the field of mRNA research. This is partly because Szeged has a decades-long tradition in this field - but, of course, also because of its most famous alumna, Karikó.

That may soon change. The leadership at the University of Szeged is working hard to turn the institution into an internationally recognized research hub. A central role in this effort is played by mRNA research -- a field with deep roots in Szeged, thanks in part to its most famous alumna, Karikó herself.

Originally, Karikó had little to do with the university after completing her studies in the 1980s. But after her groundbreaking work became known worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, she began returning to Hungary, including to Szeged. One rainy day, while sitting on a park bench on the university's biology campus, she struck up a conversation with a man who sat down beside her. It turned out to be the Hungarian microbiologist and mycologist Attila Gácser.

The two spoke enthusiastically about all kinds of potential applications for mRNA - including the treatment of fungal infections, which are particularly feared among immunocompromised patients. "Kati showed great interest in the issue," recalls Professor Gácser. Soon, a plan for future projects was drawn up. "It quickly became clear that the local infrastructure was not sufficient to carry out the necessary experiments," he says. But Karikó had a plan.

Many of the more than 200 prizes she has won since the Covid pandemic came with prize money meant to help award-winning professors fund their research. Until now, however, Karikó's prize money had remained unused, because throughout her difficult career she had never been appointed to a professorship and had no team that could benefit from it.

This is a historical exception in the history of the Nobel Prize, as usually winners are professors at their universities with large teams. In 2024, this changed: Karikó was appointed professor at the University of Szeged for the first time, allowing her to ensure that her prize money - including 150,000 Swiss francs from the Geneva-based Jeantet Prize - could finally be used for science.

With Karikó's contribution and additional university funding, a new state-of-the-art center for antimicrobial and antifungal therapies was opened in Szeged this year. The new institute now offers infrastructure that can compete with top Anglo-American universities, enabling world-class mRNA research.

One of the first major project by Attila Gácser's team is already underway and focuses on women's health. Its goal is to prevent vaginal yeast infections in the future - a problem that affects millions of women worldwide.

"We now have the opportunity to explore mRNA technology in a unique way for use in medical microbiology," explains Gácser. "Thanks to mRNA, we can combine the peptide vaccines we have studied so far for fungal infections with antibody therapies."

This approach differs fundamentally from classical vaccines: "Instead of activating the immune system, we want to calm it. For women, it is primarily the excessive inflammatory reactions in the vagina that are the problem," says Gácser. His mRNA is designed to prevent inflammation by neutralizing the fungal components that trigger the pathological process.

His team has developed an mRNA molecule that performs two tasks: Firstly, it ensures that the cells of the vaginal mucosa produce a protein that strengthens the tissue. Secondly, the new protein neutralizes exactly those substances that cause the painful inflammation. The approach is promising because it is so innovative.

"Katalin Karikó's support helps us enormously," says Gácser, thinking not only of the financial side but also of her expertise. "Kati shares not just theoretical knowledge but also practical insights that have never been published," the professor reports. "Sometimes she immediately recognizes whether an idea has potential - because she has already tried similar approaches herself and knows whether they work or not." It is hardly surprising, then, that top international universities, such as the renowned King's College London, and the University of Pennsylvania have already agreed to collaborate.

For Szeged, this is excellent news, especially because the new center will create jobs for Hungary's young researchers. Supporting the next generation is especially close to Karikó's heart. Last year, she decided to donate her entire Nobel Prize money of $500,000 to the University of Szeged to establish several competitions and awards for young scientists.

Each year, one young researcher's project will be funded with $10,000, and an additional $5,000 prize will be awarded annually in three different categories for outstanding achievements. Karikó deliberately chose not to name the prize after herself, as is common in the U.S. Instead, she named it after the Hungarian poet József Attila, since the university was called József Attila University when she studied there -- a tribute to a time she remembers fondly.

Epilogue

"Remembrance" would be the wrong word to end this article series. Speaking with the now 70-year-old Karikó, one is struck by her undiminished passion for biology and science. She still fires off rapid strings of complex protein names and eagerly discusses the latest journal findings as if they were neighborhood gossip.