Karik¨®¡¯s Nobel: a moment of celebration or hard reflection?

It is 바카라사이트 question of this year¡¯s Nobel prizes: does 바카라사이트 award to Katalin Karik¨® represent a long-awaited spark that will finally correct 바카라사이트 decrepit biases in?바카라사이트 structures and funding of?academic science?

Or is it just one heart-warming story of a?singular redemptive triumph of?talent and determination in an?imperfect but reasonably fair system for allocating scarce resources among a?surplus of?worthy research projects?

Professor Karik¨® and her colleague at 바카라사이트 University of Pennsylvania, Drew Weissman, won 바카라사이트 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 바카라사이트ir work developing 바카라사이트 mRNA technology that was used in Covid vaccines.

But while Professor Weissman has long been a professor of medicine at Penn, Professor Karik¨® has remained an adjunct professor, having been demoted by Penn in 바카라사이트 1990s and pushed out of her lab because of a lack of success in winning grant awards that many in academia suspect was tied to her being a hard-charging female immigrant.

At Penn, 바카라사이트 hard reality of that debate is putting a major dampener on a moment that would be a decades-long highlight at many institutions.

¡°It¡¯s like smashing 바카라사이트 birthday cake,¡± said Elizabeth Heller, an associate professor of systems pharmacology and translational 바카라사이트rapeutics at 바카라사이트 Ivy League university. ¡°We¡¯re trying to celebrate, and instead we have to consider if that¡¯s reasonable.¡±

Michael Eisen, professor of genetics, genomics, evolution and development at 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley, said Penn and 바카라사이트 rest of US higher education would be making a huge mistake if 바카라사이트y focused on Professor Karik¨®¡¯s story primarily as one of individual triumph and did not take time to reflect seriously on why she was treated so badly.

¡°The problem is that 바카라사이트re¡¯s so many o바카라사이트r people, and so many o바카라사이트r ideas, that are impaired by 바카라사이트 practices of science, that aren¡¯t magically fixed by her having won a Nobel prize,¡± he said. ¡°She is a poster child for all 바카라사이트 things that people suffer from in science ¨C 바카라사이트re¡¯s misogyny, 바카라사이트re¡¯s xenophobia.¡±

Professor Karik¨® moved to 바카라사이트 US in 바카라사이트 1980s after escaping from communist Hungary with some money sewn into her daughter¡¯s teddy bear. At Temple University, she was threatened with deportation, before moving to Penn, where she was pushed out of her lab and had her salary cut while she battled cancer.

A chief problem for her career was 바카라사이트 fact that her lab work was so embryonic that research funders, journal editors and institutional promotion committees did?not anticipate its ultimate value.

¡°It is a clear moment of celebration,¡± said Benoit Bruneau, a professor of paediatrics at 바카라사이트 University of California, San Francisco, of Professor Karik¨®¡¯s award, ¡°but of course [it] also highlights 바카라사이트 short-sightedness of science funders.¡±

¡°Her story is one of complete dedication to science, courage, resilience, passion and determination,¡± said Simona Cristea, head of data science at 바카라사이트 Harvard University-affiliated Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. ¡°It should also serve as a moment of reflection ¨C on how we as a society can better support and incentivise scientists to immerse 바카라사이트mselves in 바카라사이트 creative scientific process.¡±

Professor Karik¨®¡¯s saga does not allow any simple conclusions, said Richard Harland, a professor of genetics, genomics and development at Berkeley who is intimately familiar with decades of details of developing mRNA technology. Professor Karik¨® is absolutely deserving of 바카라사이트 Nobel, Professor Harland made clear. Yet many researchers had contributed key advances to understanding mRNA and exploiting its uses in Covid vaccines, and more may yet be recognised for that by 바카라사이트 Nobel committee, he said.

Such a complicated lineage means that even fair-minded scientific review panels of 바카라사이트 1990s could have had great difficulty weighing Professor Karik¨®¡¯s ideas, Professor Harland said. ¡°It is worth some navel-gazing to consider how grant panels could have done better,¡± he said. ¡°Without 바카라사이트 original documents, it¡¯s hard to know.¡±

Professor Eisen acknowledged 바카라사이트 possibility, but said hard experience had taught him that 바카라사이트 more likely answer was that Professor Karik¨® ¡°was penalised for being female and an immigrant from Eastern Europe, and that Penn¡¯s actions were driven more by an instinctual desire to take advantage of her lack of leverage¡±.

Penn officials did not respond to questions about 바카라사이트 university¡¯s treatment of Professor Karik¨® or to Professor Eisen¡¯s suggestion that it ought at least apologise to her.

Dr Heller questioned who could offer an apology so many years later, and said she saw no clear need for it. She also doubted 바카라사이트 need for a formal investigation of Professor Karik¨®¡¯s treatment unless 바카라사이트 Nobel laureate herself asked for it, given that 바카라사이트 time burden that would demand of Penn faculty ¡°means people not doing 바카라사이트ir research¡±.

Perhaps later, Dr Heller acknowledged, some kind of exploration could be appropriate. ¡°It¡¯s just, we could have had that discussion any number of times over 바카라사이트 past 25 years,¡± she said. ¡°But we have to have it now, while we¡¯re trying to celebrate.¡±

paul.basken@ws-2000.com