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A story of perseverance and the power of convictions from the groundbreaking immigrant scientist whose decades-long research led to the COVID-19 vaccines, hailed as "an inspiration" by Bill Gates"A riveting testament to resilience and the power of unwavering belief." - Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry and author of A Crack in Creation. Katalin Karikó had an unlikely journey. The daughter of a butcher in postwar communist Hungary, Karikó grew up in a one-room 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.