Matt Kaplan

And that's because Ferdinando de' Medici.

And by the way, the de' Medici by that time, de' Medici family by that time had already supplied two Queens to France and four

That's right.

So these folks were really powerful, had ensured that Galileo did not end up tortured.

So there was a lot of political disruption that occurred to protect Galileo and make sure that, you know, he didn't get burned at the stake.

So this is Kati Kariko, and Kati Kariko was working on messenger RNA back in the 90s.

And messenger RNA, she worked out, you could effectively program messenger RNA to produce any protein you damn well pleased in the lab.

And that had tremendous potential because if you could program messenger RNA and inject it into somebody and have it start producing proteins of a specific type, that could be really useful for all kinds of medicines, particularly things like vaccines.

But the problem was, as Kati was working, every time the mRNA got injected inside an animal,

it would just fall apart.

And she could demonstrate that there was potential here, but she couldn't work out what the issue was.

And when she applied for grants, the grants were rejected because the narrative that existed in the academic community was messenger RNA isn't going anywhere.

It's not worth your time.

Even if the proposals were written well, even if the experiments were well thought out, she got nowhere as a result because in academia today, you are only as good as the money you bring into the university.

If you're not bringing in lots of resources from grants, the university takes a dim view and you slowly get pushed out.

Katsi was first demoted for exploring messenger RNA and not getting enough grants.

And then she was fired by the university because they felt she really was a waste of time.

She was threatened by the US government with deportation back to Hungary.

I mean, it's frustrating because ultimately we're very lucky that after 25 years of pain and suffering with all of this, she didn't just say, screw this.

I'm going to go become a dental hygienist or a florist or something.