The scientist couple Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci of BioNTech
Here is some information about the two creative minds behind Biontech: the medical professionals Uğur Şahin, 55, and Özlem Türeci, 53. Şahins His parents came to Germany from Turkey when he was just four years old. His father worked at Ford in Cologne. There, at the university hospital, Şahin studied medicine after graduating from high school. While his friends went home after university and enjoyed their free time, Şahin continued working in the lab until 4 a.m.
His wife Özlem Türeci, also a doctor, grew up with her grandfather in Istanbul for the first four years of her life and then came to Cloppenburg, where her father worked as a doctor in a small Catholic hospital. Of herself she says: “I am a Prussian Turk.” The two, who now have a daughter together, met at the cancer ward of the hospital in Homburg, Saarland. Şahin worked there as a doctor, Türeci was in the last stages of her medical studies.
Şahin is one of the richest Germans since autumn 2019 when Biontech went public on the Nasdaq tech exchange in the USA. He holds 18 percent of the company, which was initially valued at around 3.5 billion US dollars. In the meantime, thanks to research on the coronavirus, Biontech is worth around 20 billion dollars. In October, the newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” reported that Şahin had risen to the top 100 richest Germans - with assets of 2.4 billion euros.
But the couple is only interested in research. To this day, Şahin continues to research and teach as professor of experimental oncology at the III. Medical Clinic of the University of Mainz. Türeci also still teaches as a private lecturer at the University of Mainz. The two teach students who want to become what they once were: physicians who put research at the centre of their work.
An anecdote is symbolic of this work: on the day of their wedding, both of them were still in the laboratory in the morning. And instead of celebrating with family and friends after the wedding, they returned there afterwards.
After US President Donald Trump had previously claimed a potential vaccine exclusively for the United States, Şahin stated that a key to the fight against COVID-19 was international cooperation and that “there is no discussion about whether a vaccine is only available for China, Germany or America”.