mRNA Vaccine Inventor Karikó Honored With Germany’s ‘Future’ Prize
Katalin Karikó has received another prestigious award. The ‘Future
Prize’ was awarded by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on November 17
in Berlin. It went to the developers of Biontech’s Corona vaccine, BioNTech
founders Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, as well as Christoph Huber, and Hungarian
biochemist Katalin Karikó.
“What BioNTech has achieved in the pandemic is
groundbreaking and inspiring,” said Anja Karliczek (CDU), the acting federal
research minister.
With the development of a safe and effective vaccine,
BioNTech researchers have presumably saved the lives of millions of people
worldwide and protected them from severe courses of the disease,”
The German ‘Future Prize’ is one of the most important
scientific prizes in Germany. It was awarded for the 25th time this year. To
receive the award, a product must not only be innovative but already developed
to the point of marketability. The prize is endowed with 250,000 euros.
In recent months, Karikó has already received several
prestigious international prizes, such as the Breakthrough Prize, described as
a “scientific Oscar,” the Medical Science Prize of Keiō University in Tokyo,
the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, and the New York Academy of
Medicine Prize.
No comments