Yes. I was placed to a laboratory, which was directed by Judy Swain. She was the chief. I was asked by her several times, reported and somebody heard me speak Hungarian to another Hungarian person. I usually speak English, but it many little things that she was harsh on me. That's why sometimes they ask this man, and I would say Elliot Barnathan supported me. There was a woman, actually, she was the one who demoted me eventually, but I wouldn't blame again, for that demotion because I did not get the grant. It is just the extra things when she didn't let me to use the Q vote , or I had to go to the 5th floor. Things which was absolutely unnecessary that she was telling me.

But, because I was already demoted, I did not bother her that much. I think when we talk about how men or women, I am sure that there are some places, and if Elliot would be a woman and that person who made me try to make my life miserable is a man, I would say, yes, the guys. I would think that there are good leaders, can be a man or a woman, and then somebody can be a woman and harsh just under other women. I don't know why, but, [crosstalk] could be good leaders and it could be men or women.

Dr. Katalin Kariko is a biochemist and adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work in developing mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. She completed her schooling at the University of Szeged and carried out her post-doctoral work at the Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre of Hungary.

Dr. Kariko received her Bachelor of Sciences in Biology in 1978 and her PhD in Biochemistry in 1982 from the University of Szeged. She completed her post-doctoral work at the Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre of Hungary until 1985, when her lab at the Biological Research Centre lost funding. She then moved to the United States and carried out post-doctoral work at Temple University from 1981 to 1988 and at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences from 1988 to 1989. She then joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in the Perelman School of Medicine’s neurosurgery department in 1989.

At the University of Pennsylvania, she began to collaborate with immunologist Drew Weissman, where the two experimented with modifying mRNA. In the early 2000’s, Kariko and Weissman discovered that swapping uridine with pseudouridine in mRNA created a molecule with favorable attributes such as reduced adverse reactions. This breakthrough led the way for many other modified mRNA molecules to be potentially used in a multitude of future medical applications, including developing effective mRNA vaccines against the COVID-19 virus during the height of the pandemic in 2020. For their development of mRNA biotechnology, Dr. Kariko and Dr. Weissman were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Outside of the Nobel Prize, Dr. Kariko has received numerous awards for her contributions to science including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2021, the Novo Nordisk Prize in 2022, being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023, the Harvey Prize in Human Health in 2024, and elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2025.