World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Biology and Biochemistry

D-Index
63
Citations
29161
World Ranking
9965
National Ranking
4364

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2022 - Japan Prize for pioneering research contributing to the development of mRNA vaccines.
  • 2022 - Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
  • 2022 - Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for engineering modified RNA technology which enabled rapid development of effective COVID-19 vaccines.
  • 2021 - Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Columbia University
  • 2021 - Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research
  • 2020 - Member of Academia Europaea

Overview

Katalin Karikó is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. Their research primarily focuses on molecular biology and immunology within the broader fields of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and medicine. The scientist's work has covered various subfields including molecular biology, immunology, infectious diseases, oncology, and animal science and zoology.

The main topics of their research include:

  • RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
  • Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
  • SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
  • Animal Virus Infections Studies
  • Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
  • CAR-T cell therapy research
  • RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

Katalin Karikó has published extensively in several scientific journals. Frequent publication venues include:

  • Nature
  • Immunity
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • Science Translational Medicine
  • Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Notable recent papers authored or co-authored by Karikó include:

  • COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b1 elicits human antibody and TH1 T cell responses, 2020, Nature
  • BNT162b2 vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies and poly-specific T cells in humans, 2021, Nature
  • Lipid nanoparticles enhance the efficacy of mRNA and protein subunit vaccines by inducing robust T follicular helper cell and humoral responses, 2021, Immunity
  • A noninflammatory mRNA vaccine for treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, 2021, Science
  • A Single Immunization with Nucleoside-Modified mRNA Vaccines Elicits Strong Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses against SARS-CoV-2 in Mice, 2020, Immunity

Frequent collaborators in their research include:

  • Uğur Şahin
  • Norbert Pardi
  • Lena M. Kranz
  • Özlem Türeci
  • Alexander Muik

The scientist has been recognized through various awards, including:

  • Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, 2022, for engineering modified RNA technology which enabled rapid development of effective COVID-19 vaccines
  • Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, 2022
  • Japan Prize, 2022, for pioneering research contributing to the development of mRNA vaccines
  • Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, 2021
  • Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Columbia University, 2021
  • Member of Academia Europaea, 2020

Katalin Karikó also holds an honorary doctorate included in the Doctor honoris causa series, awarded in 2023.

Best Publications

  • Suppression of RNA Recognition by Toll-like Receptors: The Impact of Nucleoside Modification and the Evolutionary Origin of RNA

    Katalin Karikó;Michael Buckstein;Houping Ni;Drew Weissman

  • mRNA-based therapeutics — developing a new class of drugs

    Ugur Sahin;Katalin Karikó;Özlem Türeci

  • COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b1 elicits human antibody and T H 1 T cell responses.

    Ugur Sahin;Alexander Muik;Evelyna Derhovanessian;Isabel Vogler

  • Incorporation of pseudouridine into mRNA yields superior nonimmunogenic vector with increased translational capacity and biological stability.

    Katalin Karikó;Hiromi Muramatsu;Frank A Welsh;János Ludwig

  • mRNA Is an Endogenous Ligand for Toll-like Receptor 3

    Katalin Karikó;Houping Ni;John Capodici;Marc Lamphier

  • Sequence- and target-independent angiogenesis suppression by siRNA via TLR3

    Mark E. Kleinman;Kiyoshi Yamada;Atsunobu Takeda;Vasu Chandrasekaran

  • Expression kinetics of nucleoside-modified mRNA delivered in lipid nanoparticles to mice by various routes.

    Norbert Pardi;Steven Tuyishime;Hiromi Muramatsu;Katalin Kariko

  • Generating the optimal mRNA for therapy: HPLC purification eliminates immune activation and improves translation of nucleoside-modified, protein-encoding mRNA

    Katalin Karikó;Hiromi Muramatsu;János Ludwig;Drew Weissman

  • Zika virus protection by a single low-dose nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccination

    Norbert Pardi;Michael J. Hogan;Rebecca S. Pelc;Hiromi Muramatsu

  • Incorporation of pseudouridine into mRNA enhances translation by diminishing PKR activation

    Bart R. Anderson;Hiromi Muramatsu;Subba R. Nallagatla;Philip C. Bevilacqua

  • BNT162b2 vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies and poly-specific T cells in humans.

    Ugur Sahin;Alexander Muik;Isabel Vogler;Evelyna Derhovanessian

  • DICER1 deficit induces Alu RNA toxicity in age-related macular degeneration

    Hiroki Kaneko;Sami Dridi;Valeria Tarallo;Bradley D. Gelfand

  • Lipid nanoparticles enhance the efficacy of mRNA and protein subunit vaccines by inducing robust T follicular helper cell and humoral responses

    Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh;István Tombácz;Emily Bettini;Katlyn Lederer

  • Small Interfering RNAs Mediate Sequence-Independent Gene Suppression and Induce Immune Activation by Signaling through Toll-Like Receptor 3

    Katalin Karikó;Prakash Bhuyan;John Capodici;Drew Weissman

  • Nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines induce potent T follicular helper and germinal center B cell responses.

    Norbert Pardi;Michael J. Hogan;Martin S. Naradikian;Kaela Parkhouse

  • Inhibition of HIV-1 infection by small interfering RNA-mediated RNA interference.

    John Capodici;Katalin Karikó;Drew Weissman

  • Nucleoside modifications in RNA limit activation of 2′-5′-oligoadenylate synthetase and increase resistance to cleavage by RNase L

    Bart R. Anderson;Hiromi Muramatsu;Babal K. Jha;Robert H. Silverman

  • Increased Erythropoiesis in Mice Injected With Submicrogram Quantities of Pseudouridine-containing mRNA Encoding Erythropoietin

    Katalin Karikó;Hiromi Muramatsu;Jason M Keller;Drew Weissman

  • A Facile Method for the Removal of dsRNA Contaminant from In Vitro-Transcribed mRNA

    Markus Baiersdörfer;Gábor Boros;Hiromi Muramatsu;Azita Mahiny

  • Inhibition of Toll-like receptor and cytokine signaling: A unifying theme in ischemic tolerance

    Katalin Karikó;Drew Weissman;Frank A Welsh

Frequent Co-Authors

Drew Weissman
Drew Weissman University of Pennsylvania
Ugur Sahin
Ugur Sahin Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
Douglas B. Cines
Douglas B. Cines University of Pennsylvania
Michael J. Hope
Michael J. Hope University of British Columbia
Özlem Türeci
Özlem Türeci BioNTech (Germany)
Jack Henkin
Jack Henkin Northwestern University
Philip R. Dormitzer
Philip R. Dormitzer Pfizer (United States)
David A. Cooper
David A. Cooper University of New South Wales
Barton F. Haynes
Barton F. Haynes Duke University
Pei-Yong Shi
Pei-Yong Shi GlaxoSmithKline (United Kingdom)

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