Katalin Karikó and two of her fellow researchers will receive Europe's best-endowed honor, the 2022 Jeantet-Collen Award for translational medicine; Katalin Karikó, senior vice president of BioNTech, research professor at the University of Szeged (SZTE), finances her research starting at SZTE from the support associated with the recognition.
Katalin Karikó and her fellow researchers, the co-founders of BioNTech, CEO Ugur Sahin and medical director Özlem Türeci, will receive the Jeantet-Collen award. "For the design and development of mRNA-based vaccines that safely protect humanity against the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus," the announcement of the Geneva-based Louis-Jeantet Foundation on Tuesday quotes the SZTE announcement. They added: the award ceremony will be held on October 11, 2022.
The result of the research on messenger RNA for therapeutic purposes is the spectacularly rapid development of a new type of "extremely effective" vaccine against the coronavirus. This played a crucial role in the global containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their work will have an unparalleled impact on the development of future vaccines against pathogens and cancer cells, " the Swiss foundation praised the results of the joint work of the three researchers.
Katalin Karikó has been a research professor at the University of Szeged since 2021. Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci are professors at the University of Mainz. The researchers will use the Jeantet-Collen prize to further deepen their research on mRNA-based vaccines and immunotherapies, they said. Each researcher receives a grant of 150,000 Swiss francs (almost HUF 53 million) for their work. Katalin Karikó, SZTE professor, will finance her research at the University of Szeged from this amount.
Source: MTI
