Barely a year ago, Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin were still largely unknown names in the world of Big Pharma. After first setting up their small biotechnology firm called BioNTech in 2008, the couple’s work has focused mainly on cancer research.
But due to the devastating coronavirus pandemic and BioNTech’s project called “Lightspeed” launched in mid-January 2020, the male and female team earlier became very concerned worldwide about developing the first vaccine against COVID-19 – the disease caused by an infection with the virus. The survey, together with the American partner Pfizer, is more than 90% effective in creating immunity against the original virus, and apparently also against the British and South African variants.
Therefore, one can rightly say Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, and his medical chief, Özlem Türeci, are saving the lives of millions of people around the world.
Germany’s highest honors
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented the Knight Commandant Cross of the Federal Order of Merit to both
Türeci and Sahin Friday. “They are being honored for making a decisive contribution to curbing the coronavirus pandemic,” the German president said.
The Knight Commander’s Cross belongs to the second of four subclasses of the Order of Merit of Germany
The Knight Commander’s Cross is part of a group of ornaments called the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Order was instituted in 1951 by the first German president, Theodor Heuss, and has since been awarded to more than 260,000 people. It consists of four groups, with eight regular and one special class, and is intended to “visibly give recognition and gratitude to deserving men and women of the German people and of abroad.”
Among the recipients of the highest honors awarded to Germany are prominent foreigners such as the British Queen Elizabeth II and former US President George W. Bush, as well as well-known German figures such as former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Pina Bausch, director of the dance company, the comedian Vicco von Bülow and a large number of Germans from all societies were also honored for their service to Germany.
Shift the focus to save the world
According to the German president, the couple also received the cross for their “pioneering work and globally recognized research” in the field of mRNA technology. The new gene therapy in vaccine development uses a small portion of the virus’ genetic information to elicit an immune response by producing proteins directly in the human cell.
Prior to their research on COVID-19, Sahin and Türeci had already tried to exploit the human body’s ability to defend itself against bacteria and viruses. They tried to fight cancer with an immunotherapy that stimulates self-healing mechanisms and causes the body’s own ‘internal police force’ to render malignant tumors harmless.
Sahin and Türeci’s background in mRNA research enabled them to develop the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine in an extraordinarily short span of less than a year, making it the first shot against COVID-19 in the world. , after approval for emergency use in the United States in November 2020.
In December, Sahin told DW that he did not consider himself a new ‘superhero’ in the vaccine investigation. “We could only do this because we have a fantastic team. A team of international scientists and staff from 60 different countries who have been working with us on this topic for years. [mRNA research], “he said.
Sahin considers himself an immune engineer trying to use the body’s antiviral mechanisms to treat cancer
A lifelong passion
Apart from the couple’s increase in scientific stars, little is known about the private lives of Sahin and Türeci.
Ugur Sahin, who was born in Turkey, was 4 when he and his mother moved to Cologne, Germany, to join his father, who worked for the Ford company. After high school he studied medicine at the University of Cologne. “I was interested in immunotherapy,” said Sahin, 54. He said he was interested in the workings of the immune system and how it could be trained to identify and attack cancer cells.
In 1992, Sahin completed medical studies and worked for a few years as a doctor of internal medicine and hematology and oncology at the University of Cologne before transferring to the Saarland University Medical Center. There he meets Türeci, a medical student and the daughter of a doctor who came from Istanbul to Germany.
For BioNTech’s medical director, Özlem Türeci, patient-centered care is the most important
A lecturer at the University of Mainz, Özlem Türeci, is considered a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy. “Influenced by my father, who worked as a doctor, I could not imagine any other profession, not even as a young girl,” Türeci told the online website wissenschaftsjahr.de. “My father’s practice was in the family home. When we were children, we played between the patients. There was no strict separation between work and life in our home.”
Like her father, she wanted to help people. At first she thought about becoming a nun, she told the German magazine Impulse in 2011, but then she decided to go to medical.
Türeci and Sahin married in 2002, when he was already working at the University Medical Center Mainz. Even on their wedding day, Sahin spent some time in the lab – both before the couple went to the registry office and afterwards again.
BioNTech recently opened a new plant in Marburg and expects to increase vaccine production by 750 million doses per year
BioNTech established
In 2001, the couple started the Ganymed Pharmaceuticals biopharmaceutical company to develop immunotherapeutic cancer drugs. They sold the business in 2016 for € 422 million ($ 502 million).
In 2008, Sahin and Türeci founded BioNTech, a company that mostly develops technologies and medicines for individualized cancer immunotherapies, none of which have yet reached the approval stage. More than 1,300 people from more than 60 countries currently work at BioNTech, and more than half of them are women.
Andreas Kuhn, senior vice president of BioNTech of RNA Biochemistry and Manufacturing, said he has rarely found someone as smart as Sahin, who is always one step ahead of other people. ‘
“If you come up with a new idea, he has already reached that stage and is expecting it,” Kuhn told an audience during the 2019 Mustafa Awards. “I think it’s one of his strengths that he can get people excited about a case.”
There is no financial reward for being honored with the Order of Merit of Germany. But the years of research still bear fruit on Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci. Sahin owns 18% of the BioNTech shares listed on the Nasdaq New York Stock Exchange. After successfully launching their vaccine, they suddenly found themselves among the 100 richest Germans – at least on paper.