The Holy Father appointed Katalin Karikó, the Nobel laureate vice-president of the pharmaceutical company BioNTech, as a regular member of the Pontifical Academy for the Protection of Life, the Szentszék press center announced on Saturday.
The announcement emphasizes that Katalin Karikó's scientific research led to the development of the mRNA-based vaccine, for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2023. The Pápai Életvédő Akadémia was founded in 1994 and deals with bioethical issues, the focus of which is the protection of life. The academy consists of a maximum of seventy members, who are appointed by the Pope for five years.
Katalin Karikó has been awarded numerous prestigious domestic and foreign awards for her work, and in 2020 she was awarded the Public Media Person of the Year Award for the first time.
MTI
Featured image: Nobel Prize-winning scientists Katalin Karikó (l) and Ferenc Krausz hug at the ceremony held in their honor at the Hungarian Embassy in Stockholm on December 9, 2023. Biochemist Katalin Karikó and American microbiologist Drew Weissman shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology on October 2, 2023 for their discoveries that laid the foundation for the development of mRNA-based vaccines. Physicist Ferenc Krausz shared this year's Nobel Prize in Physics with French physicists Anne L'Huillier and Pierre Agostini for founding the field of attosecond physics and research on electrons on October 3, 2023. The award ceremony will be held on December 10 in the Swedish capital. MTI/MTI Photo Editors/Koszticsák Szilárd
