BREAKING THROUGH

A fine memoir from a biochemist whose decades of work contributed to the formulation of the Covid-19 vaccine.

In this inspiring, riveting narrative, Karikó describes the science behind her work but also delves deeply into her childhood, education, and bumpy career. She was born in Hungary in 1955. Devastated by World War II and under communist rule, the country was impoverished, as was her family, living in a poorly heated adobe hut. Nonetheless, it was a loving family, and her butcher father always provided. The author beings with a scene in which she watches, fascinated, as her father dismembers a pig. Curious and hardworking, Karikó excelled in school. It may be surprising for some readers to learn that in this communist nation, teachers encouraged her, and the government showered her with honors and smoothed her path into a university and a research position. Ironically, moving to America in 1985 gave her more opportunities but less freedom and no prosperity. She found American academic research fiercely hierarchical, overly competitive, preoccupied with money and publication, and often simply nasty. She also found it cheaper to send her daughter to relatives in Hungary for long periods than pay for American child care. Karikó survived through stubbornness, exquisite precision in her experiments, and success in perfecting a fragile molecule, messenger RNA, to treat disease. For more than three decades, she labored with support from a few scientists but not her university employer, who denied her tenure or a permanent job. It was only after she was forcibly “retired” in 2013 that entrepreneurs began taking mRNA seriously. She became a celebrity in 2021 when pharmaceutical companies using her discoveries won the race to produce Covid-19 vaccines. Developing a new vaccine had never taken fewer than four years; creating one with mRNA succeeded in less than one.

An outstanding memoir with a happy ending.