“Breaking Through” by Katalin Karikó
2023, Penguin / Random House, 322 pp.
From there to here
Katalin Karikó’s story is not a simple “rags-to-riches” tale, although her humble and unlikely origins in a rural village in communist Hungary, and the journey to worldwide acclaim and (after the end of this book) a Nobel Prize, would suggest so. For fame and riches (if riches ever came) were never the point. Nor is it a simple “success-against-the-odds” tale in which a female overcomes the obstacles of prejudice and expectation to triumph and blaze a trail for others, although there were certainly hazards and opposition in her way: bullying and prejudice and narrow-minded thinking blocked her path.
But ultimately it is a story of good teachers, dedicated co-workers and people who shared her often lonely vision of a new way of doing things. There were lucky breaks that could so easily have never happened. And an inner drive, a bloody-minded tunnel vision and almost obsessive work ethic to achieve something amazing and change the world. Above all that intrinsic curiosity that would never take no for an answer, neither from petty-minded administrators, nor from the Universe.
Searcher
Katalin is a molecular biochemist, someone who has worked within the field of cellular biochemistry to develop therapies from the growing understanding of how the genetic code works. How the information encoded in DNA and epigenetics – the influence of environment on what goes on – it is expressed within the dizzying complexities of every cell within the human body. Her specialisation was synthesis of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) which is the carrier of information from the DNA to effect the actual production of proteins which enable every function for growth, maintenance and security of the cell, and therefore of the body.
This was work that required an extraordinary attention to detail, and years of systematic detailed work – the day-to-day of much real science, which is tedious and repetitive and unexciting. But Katalin was that kid who perhaps didn’t shine at first, but worked her socks off to get better. And then continued to work harder than anyone else, and achieved more than anyone else, through sheer dogged graft and determination to understand how the world works.
She pioneered the use of mRNA in the face of widespread belief that it couldn’t be done and would not work. The molecule is difficult to work with, and along the way negative expectations grew up around it that set academic and medical professionals dismissive attitudes to her research. With the benefit of hindsight, her work came to fruition at exactly the right time, because it produced the vaccines developed in record time to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. And mRNA technology is now one of the most powerful tools in making new therapies.
Crossing the Line
Katalin Karikó’s story is one of twists and turns, disappointments and determination. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that some of her grit and work ethic must have come from her childhood experience and seeing the lengths to which her family went to make a living. And she passed on those qualities to her daughter who figures prominently in the last chapters of the book: Susan Francia is a double Olympic champion rower for the USA. Katalin’s pride in cheering her daughter across those finish lines is evidently at least as precious to her as her undoubted contributions to medical science.
This book very deftly achieves the balance between scientific and historic fidelity and the personal story. She is another of the brilliant women who have broken through expectations and prejudice to stand tall and tell their story. What a great book!
Elsewhere on the bookshelf
- Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships by Dr Camilla Pang (Viking/Penguin Books, 2020) – A insight into the extraordinary mind of another brilliant biochemist.
- The Comet Sweeper: Caroline Hershel’s Astronomical Ambition by Claire Brock (Icon Books, 2007) – the story of a talented woman scientist ahead of her time.
- Lab Girl: A story of trees, science and love by Hope Jahren (Fleet / 2017) – This is another extraordinary story of someone so dedicated to their work that they would have to rebuild their lab from scratch over and again, even sleeping under the bench when there was nowhere else to go. “In Lab Girl, we see anew the complicated power of the natural world, and the power that can come from facing with bravery and conviction the challenge of discovering who you are.”