NATIONAL BESTSELLER ? A powerful memoir from Katalin Karikó, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, whose decades-long research led to the COVID-19 vaccines

"Katalin Karikó's story is an inspiration." -- Bill Gates

"Riveting... a true story of a brilliant biochemist who never gave up or gave in." -- Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Katalin Karikó has had an unlikely journey. The daughter of a butcher in postwar communist Hungary, Karikó grew up in an adobe home that lacked running water, and her family grew their own vegetables. She saw the wonders of nature all around her and was determined to become a scientist. That determination eventually brought her to the United States, where she arrived as a postdoctoral fellow in 1985 with $1,200 sewn into her toddler's teddy bear and a dream to remake medicine.

Karikó worked in obscurity, battled cockroaches in a windowless lab, and faced outright derision and even deportation threats from her bosses and colleagues. She balked as prestigious research institutions increasingly conflated science and money. Despite setbacks, she never wavered in her belief that an ephemeral and underappreciated molecule called messenger RNA could change the world. Karikó believed that someday mRNA would transform ordinary cells into tiny factories capable of producing their own medicines on demand. She sacrificed nearly everything for this dream, but the obstacles she faced only motivated her, and eventually she succeeded.

Karikó's three-decade-long investigation into mRNA would lead to a staggering achievement: vaccines that protected millions of people from the most dire consequences of COVID-19. These vaccines are just the beginning of mRNA's potential. Today, the medical community eagerly awaits more mRNA vaccines -- for the flu, HIV, and other emerging infectious diseases.

Breaking Through isn't just the story of an extraordinary woman. It's an indictment of closed-minded thinking and a testament to one woman's commitment to laboring intensely in obscurity -- knowing she might never be recognized in a culture that is driven by prestige, power, and privilege -- because she believed her work would save lives.

• We started tracking this book on October 6, 2023.
• This book was $13.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 33 times in the past 726 days.
• The current price of this book is $1.99 last checked 14 hours ago.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on September 29, 2025.
• This book has been $1.99 3 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on August 3, 2025.
• This book has been $14.99 6 times since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• Biographies & MemoirsProfessionals & AcademicsScientists
• Biographies & MemoirsWomen

• Publication Date: October 10, 2023
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 330 Pages
• File Size: 185 KB