Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article typically with either synthetic nucleosides or naturally modified nucleosides scientists at Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech had experimental mRNA vaccines ready for testing Karikó’s work on RNA therapeutics was recognized with numerous honours Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research (2020) the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (2021) and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2021); all three awards were shared with Weissman by Aaron Brown | Jan 25 Illustration: Kieran O’Brien and grew up in the Hungarian town of Kisújszállás where in 1976 she attended a lecture on the possible therapeutic applications of mRNA setting the stage for the focus of her scientific career the medicinal potential for mRNA was just beginning to be imagined The existence of this biomolecule had only been established 15 years earlier and the scientific community was working toward a detailed understanding of its natural function it was understood that mRNA acted as a messenger (hence the “m”) that delivered genetic code from DNA to the biological machinery for producing proteins An understanding of the basic details of mRNA’s natural function is all that is required to dream about its therapeutic potential If mRNA coding for disease-related proteins could be delivered to human cells those cells would become little protein factories The immune system would then develop defenses against those proteins and be able to recognize and destroy the real disease Against the backdrop of this basic idea Karikó began her post-graduate studies in Szeged She worked with Professor Jenö Tomasz to test the antiviral effects of bespoke synthetic RNA she moved to the USA with her husband and two-year-old daughter to begin working at Temple University in Philadelphia While at Temple she worked with double-stranded RNA investigating its impact on patients with AIDS hematological diseases and chronic fatigue In 1990 she was offered a tenure track position at the University of Pennsylvania. Around this time, a different group of researchers developed a technique for injecting mice with RNA in such a way that those mice started to produce the proteins encoded by the RNA Developing an analogous technique for humans was still a long way off This response destroyed the RNA long before it could reach cells and start protein production The first step to understanding how to get around this problem was to figure out which part of the structure of RNA caused the immune response the development of RNA therapeutics was stopped dead in its tracks After six years of work at the University of Pennsylvania due in part to a lack of interest from funding agencies in supporting her work Karikó was demoted from her tenure track position This type of demotion generally leads to the end of a scientific career she was treated for cancer and her husband encountered a visa problem On a reduced salary and with no prospect of being able to attract students to help with her research, she persisted, and eventually met a collaborator who was able to help further her work. The immunologist Drew Weissman moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, and found himself fighting for photocopy time with Karikó They started to collaborate and developed a novel hypothesis that relied on one of the oldest known immune responses RNA does not look like it is drawn in textbooks adding chemical modifications which act as a fingerprint Bacteria can use these patterns of chemical decoration to identify which DNA belong to themselves and which DNA are foreign and should be destroyed Karikó and Weismann wondered if perhaps a similar process was being played out in the human immune response to external RNA To test this theory they chemically modified a selection of the building blocks that make up RNA They incorporated these decorated RNA building blocks into larger strands of the biomolecule and observed the response after exposing them to immune cells They found that many of these modifications suppressed immune responses One modification to the RNA building block called uracil had a particularly stark effect on immune responses This same modification is being used in two of the vaccines that in 2021 are being distributed around the world to combat the COVID-19 pandemic The field of RNA therapeutics that Katalin Karikó helped to found is having a massive impact on the world today and the full impact of her determination and sheer force of will is a long way from being realized Read more Pioneers in science articles >> Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive the latest science news directly to your inbox Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive the latest science news Chien-Shiung Wu was an expert in nuclear physics making many significant contributions to not only the field From pasteurization to the first manufactured vaccines Louis Pasteur made breakthrough discoveries in disease prevention and public health Famous for his work on radioactive elements and the development of radiotracers George de Hevesy made the first observations of biological processes in living organisms possible writer; Stephen Jay Gould sparked a revolution in how scientists view evolution Credited as one of the first computer scientists Ada Lovelace saw the potential of computers a century before any were ever built A pioneer of advanced healthcare materials Nicholas Peppas continues to innovate in the fields of healthcare materials and drug delivery Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Úgy tűnik nem található semmi ezen a helyen IMPRESSZUM SZERZŐI JOGOK ADATVÉDELEM FELHASZNÁLÁSI FELTÉTELEK GM Leon Luke Mendonca won his second tournament in consecutive months as he scored an unbeaten 6.5/9 to win 2nd Kumánia GM tournament. Last month Leon won Vezerkepzo IM Round-Robin. The 14-year-old had also won the first edition of Kumania Championship back in November 2020 Leon started the tournament with a draw then he registered four consecutive victories and four consecutive draws to finish with the same score as GM Milan Pacher Leon won the tournament due to better tie-breaks Brand Ambassador of Geno and Microsense GM Leon Luke Mendonca won his second tournament in consecutive months by scoring an unbeaten 6.5/9. He also won the first edition of Kumania championship last November Leon won a beautiful trophy and 200000 Hungarian Forint (about ₹50000) for his efforts Leon scored a fine victory in Round 2 in IM Peter Lizak after the latter made a positional mistake 17...Qe7 is a mistake as it helps white to realize his positional advantage Leon won his third round game against GM Gergely Kantor comfortably Leon fought well against GM Gergely Aczel and made a marathon draw in 95 moves Details Official site We have launched the ChessBase India App. Check out this amazing resource! Android for now - Download the app now Follow Tweets by @ChessbaseIndia ChessBase India is proud to be the official partner of chessbase.com reporting on events in India Like our Facebook page for more Indian chess updates The all new ChessBase Premium Account which gives you access to ten amazing online ChessBase services like PlayChess Become a part of the ever-growing ChessBase India Youtube Channel. Subscribe now and stay update with our awesome video content. Hungary will build new motorways this year: here is a list of them the length of these newly-built segments will only be 30 kilometres in 2024 The first new segments will be inaugurated at the beginning of the year They are the last section of the M6 and the last but one segment of the M44 motorways According to Világgazdaság ongoing building projects concern 123 kilometres of motorway According to the economy-focused media outlet 20 kilometres of the M6 motorway will be opened to traffic The completion of M6 will help to travel to Croatia and Serbia more easily from Budapest a segment of the M44 motorway between Szentkirály and Lakitelek will also be ready The technical handover happened last December in that section the Sopron-Austrian border section of the M85 highway will also be ready neither the M6 nor the M85 continues after the border But it is good news for many people that they reach the Croatian and the Austrian border will also become a motorway on its entire length Work is in progress on 34.29 kilometres there M4 is connecting the Romanian border with Budapest especially because of the many trucks and lorries commuting there and shipping goods between the East and the West The Törökszentmiklós-Kisújszállás segment costs HUF 133.9 billion (EUR 354 million) and Duna Aszfalt has 36 months to finish it 60 kilometres segment connecting Berettyóújfalu and Kisújszállás will remain single-lane M49 will provide faster access between the Hungarian Nyíregyháza and Szatmárnémeti (Satu Mare) in Romania A 45-kilometre-long segment of it in Hungary will connect Nyíregyháza with the Romanian border Szatmárnémeti is just approximately 10 kilometres away from the border The first section between Nyíregyháza and Ököritófülpös is 28.15 kilometres and will be ready by 2026 autumn The procurement process for the second stage connecting Ököritófülpös with the border is ongoing the relevant contracts might be signed this summer 4.6 kilometres long section was ready in December 32.2 km section between Szentkirály and Kecskemét started in 2022 by Hódút Ltd M85 will reach the Austrian border this year the project was more difficult than expected because the consortium of contractors (Dömpet Ltd Pannon-Doprastav Ltd and Subterra-Raab Ltd) had to build a 780-metre-long tunnel The original cost was HUF 50 billion (EUR 132 million) which grew by HUF 4.5 billion (EUR 11.9 million) lately M6 will connect the Croatian border with Budapest this January but the Croatian continuation of the road is not ready yet 4.5 kilometres of it is in Croatia and will be ready by 2025 you can travel on the motorway between Budapest and the Bosnian border Motorway length in Hungary became longer than in Austria that is “only” 1749 kilometres there is a halt in motorway building in Hungary That is probably because of the difficult economic situation in Hungary with high inflation decreasing consumption and problems with the Hungarian budget That is why we cannot be sure when the government-promised M76 (Zalaegerszeg) and M100 projects will start and website in this browser for the next time I comment Y"},"category":false,"taxonomy":{"active":false,"name":"category"}},"markup":{"custom_html":true,"wpp-start":"","wpp-end":"<\/ul>","title-start":"","title-end":"<\/h2>","post-html":"{thumb} {title} {stats}<\/span>{excerpt}<\/p><\/li>"},"theme":{"name":""}} You have successfully joined our subscriber list © 2025 DailyNewsHungary | All rights reserved