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Women’s Watch: Women scientists developed COVID-19 vaccine

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Future writers of the global COVID-19 pandemic will have vast amounts of stories to tell. Included in the stories will be the thousands of women scientists who helped develop the COVID-19 vaccine in record-breaking time.

Women of many disciplines such as neuroscientists who study the sense of smell began investigating why many COVID-19 patients were losing theirs. This article will highlight the work of several women who helped bring forward the understanding of the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccine.

One of the first breakthroughs was due to decades-long research done by Dr. Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian immigrant who came to America in the 1970s at the invitation of Temple University in Philadelphia. As Dr. Kariko describes her long journey of studying mRNA as one of setbacks, job losses, doubt and rejection.

Yet, she stood by her conviction that mRNA could be used for something truly groundbreaking and her work paid off. Her research results are the basis of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In an interview on Cuomo Prime Time, Dr. Kariko discussed her experienc=e in America noting that after several years at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine research lab, disinterest in her work began. Slowly the bloom was off the rose of mRNA research.

The idea that it could be used to fight disease was deemed too radical, too expensive. Funding stopped. Applications for grant after grant were rejected. In 1995, Dr. Kariko was demoted from her position.

She responded, “Usually at this point, people just say goodbye and leave. I thought of going somewhere else or doing something else. I also thought maybe I’m not good enough, not smart enough.” She stuck with it, and eventually, she and a former UPenn colleague, Dr. Drew Weissman, professor of infectious diseases in the Perelman School of Medicine, developed a method of utilizing synthetic mRNA.

This method fights disease that involves changing the way the body produces virus-fighting material and that brought about the basis of the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Kariko is now a senior vice president of the Germany-based BioNTech. Colleagues are promoting her and Weissman for a Nobel Prize.

Dr. Linsey Marr earned a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California at Berkeley because of her interest in pollution. Her attention turned to the transmission of viruses when her little son started attending day care. Through his first year, he kept getting sniffles and other small diseases, and Dr. Marr wondered why.

In an interview by New York Times, she said, “I was surprised to find out we don’t even know how much of the flu is spread through the air or through touching. There was so little known about it that this personal fascination became an obsession.” Several findings resulted from her research projects:

  • Microscopic droplets in the flu virus are small enough to remain floating in the air for over an hour,
  • Flu virus is associated with the season’s humidity and airborne roots play a role in how quickly viruses spread.

It was during the coronavirus pandemic when the world recognized Dr. Marr for her expertise. Dr. X.J. Meng, a Virginia Tech professor, said, “Dr. Marr is really the star in the field right now. She is one of very few scientists who has this ability to study aerosol transmission. She can use engineering tools to study the dynamics of viruses and bacteria in the air.

If you look at her work, she collaborates with virologists, epidemiologists, physicians and public health specialists. Her work is interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary to solve public health problems.” Dr. Marr’s maternal and scientific curiosity and her multidisciplinary background have made her one of the world’s leading scientists on airborne viruses.

There is not enough space here to profile so many extraordinary women scientists who are doing extraordinary research finding new information about viruses. Among them are Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, scientific lead for coronavirus vaccines at the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Luciana Borio, a member of President Biden’s Advisory Board. Dr. Lauren Gardner an engineer at Johns Hopkins University created a world-wide dashboard used by 1.2 billion requests a day to share statistics and information about the pandemic.

Editor's note: Women’s Watch is a cooperative writing effort of the local chapters of the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters and the National Organization for Women. This piece was submitted by Dr. Kathleen Devine Karol.