Breaking Through

'In einer packenden Biografie schildert Impfpionierin Katalin Karikó ihren steinigen Weg auf den Olymp der Wissenschaft.' FAZ'Absolut fesselnd ... die wahre Geschichte einer brillanten Biochemikerin, die nie aufgegeben hat.' Bonnie Garmus - In einer von männlichen Wissenschaftlern dominierten Welt gelang der Ungarin Katalin Karikó das Unglaubliche: Nach jahrzehntelanger Forschung zur mRNA war sie an der Impfstoff-Entwicklung von COVID-19 beteiligt - und erhielt dafür 2023 den Nobelpreis für Medizin. Aufgewachsen im kommunistischen Ungarn der Nachkriegszeit in einem Lehmhaus ohne fließend Wasser war Karikó schon früh entschlossen, Wissenschaftlerin zu werden. Mit 1200 Dollar, eingenäht in den Teddybär ihrer Tochter, und dem Traum, die Medizin zu revolutionieren, ging sie in die USA. Dort machte sie allen Widerständen zum Trotz eine beispiellose Karriere als Biochemikerin. In ihrer glänzend geschriebenen Autobiografie zeigt sie wie Mut, Ausdauer und ihre unerschütterliche Leidenschaft für die Forschung zu einer Erfindung führten, die Millionen Menschen das Leben rettete.Die Taschenbuchausgabe beinhaltet zahlreiche Fotos aus dem Privatarchiv der Autorin. Die deutsche Erstausgabe ist bei btb HC unter dem Titel 'Durchbruch' erschienen.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A powerful memoir from Katalin Karikó, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, whose decades-long research led to the COVID-19 vaccines<BR><BR>“Katalin Karikó’s story is an inspiration.”—Bill Gates<BR><BR>“Riveting . . . a true story of a brilliant biochemist who never gave up or gave in.”—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry<BR><BR>A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR<BR><BR>Katalin Karikó has had an unlikely journey. The daughter of a butcher in postwar communist Hungary, Karikó grew up in an adobe home that lacked running water, and her family grew their own vegetables. She saw the wonders of nature all around her and was determined to become a scientist. That determination eventually brought her to the United States, where she arrived as a postdoctoral fellow in 1985 with $1,200 sewn into her toddler’s teddy bear and a dream to remake medicine. <BR><BR>Karikó worked in obscurity, battled cockroaches in a windowless lab, and faced outright derision and even deportation threats from her bosses and colleagues. She balked as prestigious research institutions increasingly conflated science and money. Despite setbacks, she never wavered in her belief that an ephemeral and underappreciated molecule called messenger RNA could change the world. Karikó believed that someday mRNA would transform ordinary cells into tiny factories capable of producing their own medicines on demand. She sacrificed nearly everything for this dream, but the obstacles she faced only motivated her, and eventually she succeeded.<BR><BR>Karikó’s three-decade-long investigation into mRNA would lead to a staggering achievement: vaccines that protected millions of people from the most dire consequences of COVID-19. These vaccines are just the beginning of mRNA’s potential. Today, the medical community eagerly awaits more mRNA vaccines—for the flu, HIV, and other emerging infectious diseases.<BR><BR>Breaking Through isn’t just the story of an extraordinary woman. It’s an indictment of closed-minded thinking and a testament to one woman’s commitment to laboring intensely in obscurity—knowing she might never be recognized in a culture that is driven by prestige, power, and privilege—because she believed her work would save lives.