Katalin Karikó Mural Completed in Budapest

On Monday afternoon, August 30, the last brushstrokes and the slogan "The future is written by Hungarians" were painted on the giant fire mural with which the organizers of the Brain Bar Future Festival pay tribute to the Hungarian scientist who played a key role in the development of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine, Katalin Karikó, the popular news site telex.hu reports.

The finished work is now on display at Krisztina körút 30, on the Buda side of the Hungarian capital.

The 220-square-meter painting was commissioned by Brain Bar and created by the Colorful City Group in just 11 days using 197 liters of paint. "Working in a public space is exciting because many people immediately give their opinion on the work in progress. It was particularly surprising here that as we filled in the drawing with colors and the picture started to come together, almost everyone knew who it was about," the general secretary of the Colorful City Group, Péter Flór said.

Dr. Katalin Karikó – who reacted to the news on her Twitter channel by writing "It was a surprise, a big surprise!" – is now probably the best-known living Hungarian scientist in the world. The biochemist, who has lived in the United States since the 1980s, played a key role in the development of new types of mRNA-based vaccines, helping to save countless lives around the world in the new coronavirus pandemic. Her achievements at BioNTech are the basis for Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines, and her name appears among the top contenders for the Nobel Prize.