World-known Hungarian researcher received important German award

Hungarian-born biochemist Katalin Karikó has received the Theodor Boveri Prize, the highest award in life sciences at Julius-Maximilians-University in Würzburg, Germany, in recognition of her research, the University of Szeged, Karikó’s alma mater, said on Monday.

This is the first time that the Societas Physico-Medica, the Würzburg Physical-Medical Society, has awarded the prize to a woman, the statement said. Karikó, who used to be vice president of BioNTech, which has led research on mRNA-based medicine since the 1990s, has played a major role in developing new vaccination strategies which have been used in the fight against Covid-19.