Breaking Through: My Life in Science

Hungarian American biochemist Karikó, whose research was instrumental in the development of mRNA vaccines for Covid-19, details her life and career in this captivating debut memoir. While growing up in a one-room house in post-WWII Hungary, Karikó found deep communion with the outdoors—her family grew their own food, and she was fascinated by the teeming animal ecosystems just beyond her backyard. A middling student, she oriented herself toward science (“What I lacked in natural ability, I could make up for in effort”). In college, she received a fellowship to Hungary’s prestigious Biological Research Center; she felt like “a fish out of water amid powerful people” there, but her studies led her to become fascinated by the function of mRNA, a single-strand nucleic acid that instructs cells to build proteins. In the mid-1980s, she came to America as a postdoctoral fellow to continue her research on mRNA, fighting an uphill battle to be taken seriously (both as a woman and due to skepticism about mRNA’s importance) before her findings became crucial during 2020 vaccine development campaigns. Karikó describes her research with a palpable sense of wonder (“Every cell is like a sci-fi city that never sleeps”), successfully distilling complex scientific matters. The result is the rousing story of a remarkable woman and her lifesaving contributions to medicine. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (Oct.)