Katalin Kariko call text

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Hello. Hello. May I speak to Catherine Carrico, please? Speaking. Oh, hello. This is Adam Smith,

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calling from Nobel Prize. Oh, yes, father. Okay. Yes. Many congratulations on the award of the

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Nobel Prize. Thank you. Thank you very much. Where are you and how did you hear the news?

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I was sleeping and actually my husband picked up the phone. I am at my home in

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a suburb of Philadelphia in Abington Township. And I just, I was away on a conference in

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a quarter-pronged high-border and just for today's return, it would be a celebrated 50 years

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of recombinant DNA technology. I met all of the people that 80s, 90s that did the basic work and

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I just came back. A lovely gathering. And on hearing the news, I mean, you're no stranger to

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awards. Of course, they've been coming so thick and fast recently. But what were your first thoughts

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on hearing this news? That somebody is just joking. How were you reassured? It is kind of very

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scientific and there was too much information within it that, you know, somebody would just make

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it up, but you never know in these days. Now you know for sure. I know, I'm 100 percent sure.

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Yes, maybe it'll never sink in. Who knows? Yeah. Apart from the doubt and the reassurance,

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I mean, what does it mean to you?

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Adam, if you know about 10 years ago, I was here in October because I was kicked out from

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panic. I was forced to retire and then my husband supported me and said that, you know, when I

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finally visited Germany and found that maybe Biontech is the right place, then, you know, he said

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that, you know, just try it. You know, I would make sure that you don't regret that, you know, there

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is, you know, looking back in my life and he supported me that I would go nine years. I

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commuted to Biontech in Germany. I did all these experiments actually with my own hands. I was 58

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years old. I was still, you know, capturing plus me than doing, you know, feeding cells. And so

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it is very unlikely. I have to say my mother, she passed away in 2018, but my mother listened

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always the announcement of, you know, who gets the Nobel Prize because she told me, oh, next

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week, they were, they were announced. Maybe you will get it. You know, I was laughing. I was not

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even a professor, no demon. And I told my mom that, don't, don't, don't, listen. And she said,

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yes, but, you know, you work so hard. And I told her that all scientists work very hard and so.

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How wonderful to have someone who believes in you to such an extent.

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Yes, they believed. And, you know, my daughter is of course, you know, she watched me to work hard

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and she became, you know, two times Olympic champion. Olympic champion in what?

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Rowing. And she's five times world champion. And, you know, I went to this, she was inducted

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in Hall of Fame. She was rowing here and there. And I always introduced like, she's Susan Mom.

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I was Susan Mom. And now that my daughter came several times in the award ceremony with me and

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that she was introduced, cut his daughter. It's, I must say for me, it's a great delight to be

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talking to Susan's mom on this call. It's lovely. But I, I suppose the message of all this is

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that persistence can pay off in the end. It's, yeah. Yeah, the persevere and, and I believe that the

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first 14 years of your life, your dreams, your parents, your teachers, your friends, they shape you,

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the person who you will be. And I also, you know, as a woman and a mother, you know, I tried to

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follow female scientists that you don't have to choose between having a family. You can have it.

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You just don't have to over, you know, assist your child. Just, your child will watch you and then

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they will do because that's what counts, you know, that the example what you present.

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When I was 16 years old, I read the book from Hans Scheyer. Hans Scheyer is a Canadian scientist,

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but he was Hungarian, so his book was translated to Hungarian. And his mantra was that you have to

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focus on things what you can change. Many young ones are giving up because they can see that some of

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their friends or, you know, colleagues there, you know, advancing and it seems that they

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do less than somehow, you know, they get higher salary and promote it. I told that if you notice

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that and you already took away your attention what you can change because you cannot change that.

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And I told it also that when I was terminated, I don't spend time feeling sorry for you and,

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you know, saying things, why me, you have to all your energy, you have to spend to seek out what

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next, what I can do. Indeed, indeed. Let me just ask you very briefly about your working relationship

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with Drew Weissmann. You strike me as very different characters.

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Yeah, it is, you know, like I brag, I, you know, more talkative and, but when you would see us

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look at the data, we caught each other's words and to be to to to to to to what what it means,

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you know, we just were very alive and about the experiments yet it was, we were very similar.

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But yes, once Drew shows me that, you know, Kati, from A to B, you know, you are six, six, six, six, six, six,

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and I'm just like straight. But I taught him when I think that I learned so much in six eggs.

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Indeed, zigzagging seems to have been very productive. It's been so lovely to have this relaxed

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conversation. I'm afraid that it's so early in the morning, but your day is just going to get

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busier and busier from this point on. Good luck with it all and thank you very much indeed.

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Okay. Thank you. Bye. Bye.