Katalin Karikó is Senior Vice President at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals. She is also Adjunct Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Szeged, Hungary, in 1982. For four decades, her research has been focusing on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the ultimate goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and co-discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA, which widened the therapeutic potentials of mRNA. She is co-inventor on mRNA-related patents, including eight, which is granted in the USA for application of non-immunogenic, nucleoside-modified RNA. She co-founded and served as CEO of RNARx from 2006-2013.