Washington (AFP) – Hungarian-American scientist Katalin Kariko’s obsession with researching a substance called mRNA to fight disease once cost her a faculty position at a prestigious university, which dismissed the idea as a dead end. Now, her pioneering work — which paved the way for the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines — could be what saves the world from a 100-year pandemic. “This is just kind of unbelievable,” she told AFP in a video call from her home in Philadelphia, adding she was unused to the attention after toiling for years in obscurity. It shows why “it’s important science sh…
