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Katalin Karikó was the daughter of a butcher. She wanted to be a scientist, although she had never met one. She immigrated to the US in her 20s, but for decades never found a permanent position, receiving little support from the scientific establishment. Now she’s a Nobel winner!
@luckytran@med-mastodon.comKatalin Karikó won a Nobel Prize for her work on the COVID mRNA vaccines. Yet just 10 years earlier, UPenn kicked her out of academia.
"They told me that they’d had a meeting and concluded that I was not of faculty quality. When I told them I was leaving, they laughed at me and said, ‘BioNTech doesn’t even have a website.'"
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mrna-coronavirus-vaccine-pfizer-biontech
@luckytran , Imagine being one of the guys who got rid of her.... The shame they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. They fired a woman who saved millions of lives, and made billions of dollars.
@luckytran
I’m sorry for replying to a serious post with memes but this shirt was the the only thing I could think about
@luckytran shame on @upenn
@luckytran The same folks who protected Sandusky. 
@Mallulady @luckytran , that was Penn State, not U of P.
@luckytran why is it always like this
@luckytran . Let’s hear it for all cutting edge adjuncts, often first in the door with new insights and independent research.
@luckytran I’m extremely grateful that they created the Covid vaccine. So many lives saved. I’m glad she persisted. A personal thank you and congratulations to her!
@luckytran reminds me of the superrez microscope inventor. He was no longer in academia for 10 years by that time and did the first one in his parent’s garage, from spare parts from a foreclosed company.
Says something about the way academia is currently operating…
@luckytran And UPenn is of course crowing about her win as one of “theirs” https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/katalin-kariko-and-drew-weissman-penns-historic-mrna-vaccine-research-team-win-2023-nobel 
@luckytran UPENN bragging about MRNA vaccine science: https://www.pennmedicine.org/mrna
@luckytran How embarrassing for UPENN. I do wish that this wasn't a fairly common thing in medical research.
@luckytran
The article is from 2020, but hey, what a story.
How many millions of lives saved? It's incomprehensible.
@luckytran This has a strong “Decca rejected the Beatles” vibe 
If you are rejecting someone or letting them go, don't make fun of them on their way out… It could come back to bite you in the ass.
…Unless they're MAGAats -- in that case, knock yourself out…
@luckytran From being kicked out to being a superstar! Now that's the best revenge ever! Screw the board!