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https://theconversation.com/how-your-money-is-helping-subsidise-sexism-in-academia-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-218347>
"It’s frightening to imagine where the world would be right now without mRNA
vaccines. The COVID-busting technology revolutionised vaccine development at an
internationally critical moment – with massive implications for people’s
health, wellbeing and the global economy.
Yet imagine we must – because some of the research most crucial to the
development of mRNA vaccines almost didn’t happen.
Biochemist Katalin Karikó’s fascination with the therapeutic potential of mRNA
began in the early 1990s, but she received little encouragement. She was
undervalued and underfunded throughout her university career and eventually
left academia.
When she went on to jointly win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her pioneering
role in developing the mRNA technology that allowed the world to take on COVID,
Karikó’s former employer, the University of Pennsylvania, tried to take credit.
Yet during her time there, the university sidelined and demoted Karikó,
eventually pushing her out altogether. While it would be nice to think of
Karikó’s experience as an aberration, her experience - as we highlight in our
new paper - is all too common for women in academia."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
