[ad_1]
Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci have dedicated their lives to oncology, having developed several pioneering immunotherapy methods in the treatment of cancers. But this Turkish couple recently gained prominence for groundbreaking research in the field of modified genetic code, which launched them as the mastermind behind the most effective potential vaccine against Covid-19 to date.
The pair of scientists co-founded BioNTech in the German city of Mainz in 2008, and on Monday a partner of the company, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, announced to the world that its candidate vaccine was more than 90% effective. in the prevention of Covid-19.
But who is the duo behind the most promising vaccine against the disease? Şahin was born in Iskenderun, a city on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. He then moved to Cologne, Germany, when he was four years old, where his father worked in a Ford factory, according to Reuters. In 1993, he obtained a doctorate from the University of Cologne for his work on tumor cell immunotherapy.
Uğur Şahin was born in Iskenderun, Turkey, and moved to Germany at the age of four, where he pursued his academic career © Getty Images
It is said that he met Türeci, the daughter of a Turkish doctor, when they were both beginning their academic careers in Germany. She had the ambition to become a nun, but ended up studying medicine.
Özlem Türeci had ambitions to become a nun but ended up studying medicine © Getty Images
The couple came together because of a shared passion for research in the field of oncology and will even have spent part of their wedding day in the lab, as The New York Times reports.
Although this vaccine is a big step for the scientific community, Şahin and Türeci are veterans in the world of medical innovation. The duo founded their previous company, Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, in 2001 to work on developing antibodies in the treatment of cancers. The pharmaceutical product was subsequently sold for $ 1.4 billion (about € 1.2 billion) in 2016.
After selling Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, they founded BioNTech, seeking to use a broader set of technologies, including messenger RNA (mRNA), to treat cancer.
Even before the pandemic, BioNTech was well established in the world of pharmaceuticals. The company has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and now has more than 1,800 employees, with laboratories in Berlin and other German cities, as well as Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Şahin, CEO of the company, and Türeci, medical director, are among the 100 richest people in Germany, according to Reuters. On Tuesday, the market value of his Nasdaq-listed company traded at $ 25.72 billion, a huge jump from last year when it traded at $ 4.6 billion.
6 clues to understand the importance of the Pfizer vaccine, which is 90% effective against Covid
But the long-standing commitment to science appears to have kept the billionaire couple on their feet. In January, after reading a scientific article in the Lancet magazine about the new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Şahin and Türeci joined forces in cancer mRNA research to develop vaccines against the virus. Quickly, BioNTech put 500 of its employees to work on the project, closing a deal to collaborate with Pfizer in March.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) to trigger an immune response in vaccinated people, so there is already a ready response by when the person is actually infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Speaking to CNN on Monday, Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer, called the vaccine “the greatest medical advance” in the last 100 years.
