破壊的技術、mRNAの受託製造拠点を福島県南相馬市に建設：日経ビジネス電子版 (nikkei.com)
新型コロナウイルス感染症（COVID-19）の流行下で生じた技術革新で、世界に最も大きなインパクトを与えたのがメッセンジャーRNA（mRNA）ワクチンの技術であることは論をまたないだろう。
2005年にmRNAをワクチンにするのに欠かせない技術を発表し、現在は米ファイザーと共同でmRNAワクチンを開発したドイツのビオンテックの上級副社長を務めるハンガリー出身の女性研究者、カタリン・カリコ氏は今年のノーベル生理学・医学賞の受賞が確実視されている。
(後略）
カタリン・カリコ氏とはー
A typical Hungarian story: Katalin Karikó – Hungarian Spectrum
Until March 2018, few people in Hungary had ever heard of Katalin Karikó. At the time, the Hungarian-born biochemist was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Of course, some of her friends in Kisújszállás, where she was brought up, and her former colleagues at the University of Szeged, where she received her Ph.D., were aware of the important research she had done since leaving Hungary in 1985. She made frequent trips to Hungary, but they were mostly family visits.
In 2018, however, most likely at the urging of her old chemistry teacher at Kisújszállás’s only gymnasium, she gave an interview gve to the Hungarian Chemical Society outlining the essence of her work on mRNA therapy, which then was proudly displayed on the gymnasium’s webpage with a photo, depicting the famous visitor as well as her high school and university classmate whom she invited to join her, Norbert Pardi, also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
（中略）
In another interview with the University of Szeged , which is proud of its alumna, we learn that before her admission to the university in ’73 she and her friend participated in a camp for disadvantaged youngsters designed to prepare them for the entrance exam. Not only have Pardi and Karikó been friends since elementary-school days, but their fathers, both butchers, are also friends.
（中略）
Karikó talked about her struggles once she got to the United States in a lecture she was asked to deliver at Harvard University with “special emphasis on her failures.” The obstacles she encountered were numerous because of the novelty of her research projects, which meant going without research grants for years despite increasingly promising results. Her first grant application in 1990 was rejected because her peers were convinced that her mRNA research would lead nowhere. She took her rejection letter to show it to the Harvard audience.
This story might be amusing in light of her later successes, but it wasn’t at all funny during those eight years when she got one rejection after another. She finally received her first grant for $100,000 in 1998, which as far as scientific grants go is a measly amount of money. However, it was a breakthrough. The following year she got one million dollars.
（中略）
Most likely not coincidentally, it was also in 1998 that Drew Weismann, an immunologist, saw promise in her research. Their chance meeting at the copy machine led to a partnership that became the Weismann-Kariko project — and to a possible vaccine against COVID-19. Initially, there was a stumbling block. mRNA caused an inflammatory reaction when injected. It was only in 2004 that Karikó and Weismann found that, by using a slightly altered nucleoside, the problem could be overcome.
（中略）
But there were still many obstacles, including the lack of backers. For anyone who is interested in the late phase of the enterprise, there are many well-informed articles on Moderna and BioNtech, two companies that have played dominant roles in developing a vaccine based on the Weismann-Kariko formula.
I should add that Susan Francia, Karikó’s daughter, is an Olympic champion who, as a member of the U.S. women’s eight, is a gold medalist (Beijing, 2008 and London, 2012). Perseverance (and talent) seems to be a family trait.
NOVEMBER 22, 2020
参考：
追記：
（2020年4月27日に作成されています。）
（2021年1月23日に作成されています。）
2018年の
mRNA vaccines — a new era in vaccinology | Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
には、Norbert Pardi氏とDrew Weissman氏の名はありますが、カタリン・カリコ―氏の名はありません。
追記２：
メモとして。
