Özlem Türeci

Özlem Türeci (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈœzlɛm ˈtyrɛdʒɪ]; born 6 March 1967) is a German physician, scientist and entrepreneur.[1] She was the co-founder of the German biotechnology company BioNTech in 2008, which developed the first approved messenger RNA-based vaccine against COVID-19 in 2020. Türeci has served as BioNTech's chief medical officer since 2018.[2] She was founder and CEO of Ganymed Pharmaceuticals from 2008 to 2016. She is also a private lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.[3][4]

Özlem Türeci
Özlem Türeci in 2019
Born (1967-03-06) 6 March 1967
Lastrup, Germany
CitizenshipGermany
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Chief Medical Officer
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Company Founder
Years active1992–present
Employer
Organization
  • American Society of Clinical Oncology
  • American Association for Cancer Resarch
  • German Society for Immunology
  • German Society for Hematology and Oncology
Known for
OfficeCMO BioNTech SE
Term2018–present
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 2002)​
Children1
Awards
  • Calogero Pagliarello Research Award
  • Georges Köhler Prize
  • German Sustainability Award
  • Axel Springer Award
WebsiteProfile at BioNTech

Life and education

Born in Lastrup, Türeci is the daughter of a Turkish surgeon father from Istanbul, who worked at the Catholic hospital St. Elisabeth-Stift in Lastrup in the district of Cloppenburg.[5] Her mother is a Turkish biologist.[6] She attended, among others, the Städtisches Gymnasium in Bad Driburg and the Werner-von-Siemens-Gymnasium in Bad Harzburg.[7] She studied human medicine at Saarland University in Homburg and received her doctorate from the Medical Faculty of Saarland in 1992.[8] She was a habilitation and Heisenberg fellow of the German Research Foundation. Her research focuses on the identification and characterization of tumor-specific molecules and the development of immunotherapies against cancer.[9] In 2002, she completed her habilitation at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in the field of molecular medicine.

Türeci met her future husband Uğur Şahin while he was working at Saarland University Hospital in Homburg, where she was completing her final year of studies.[10] In 2002, the Turkish couple married and have a daughter together.[11]

Career

Türeci co-founded and has served as Chair of the German Top Research Cluster for Individualized Immune Intervention Ci3 of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research since 2011[12][13] and President of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), the largest European association for cancer immunotherapy, since 2019.[14] She is internationally active as a lecturer.[15]

University Medicine Mainz

Türeci was a staff member of the University Medical Center Mainz in the special research area Immunology there.[16][17] Since 2002, she has been a private lecturer at the University Medical Center Mainz in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Together with her husband Ugur Sahin and her mentor Christoph Huber, they developed the concept of a "translational institute", which was realized in 2001 with the foundation of TRON.[18][19] This is a biopharmaceutical research institute that develops new diagnostics and drugs for the therapy of cancer and other diseases with high unmet medical needs.[20]

Ganymed Pharmaceuticals

Türeci founded the company Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2001 with her later husband Uğur Şahin.[21] Ganymed and also BioNTech, which was founded later, are spin-offs of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.[22] This company developed the monoclonal antibody zolbetuximab, which is to be used against esophageal and gastric cancer.[23] She led the company from 2008 to 2016 in the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) until the acquisition. Prior to that, she was chief scientific officer (CSO) from 2001 to 2008. In 2016, the company was sold to Astellas Pharma and is now a subsidiary.[24]

Biontech
Headquarters of BioNTech in Mainz

In 2008, Türeci was one of the founders of the Mainz-based biotechnology company BioNTech, of which she has been Chief Medical Officer (CMO) since 2018.[25] From 2009 to 2018, she served as chair of the company's scientific advisory board. BioNTech is focused on the development and manufacturing of active immunotherapies for a patient-specific approach to the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases.[26] As CMO, she is primarily responsible for Clinical Research and Development. BioNTech has been conducting research on a vaccine against the infectious disease COVID-19 since January 2020[27] under the leadership of Özlem Türeci and her husband Uğur Şahin, who is the company's CEO, making her responsible for the clinical trials area in the development of the vaccine BNT162b2 (also known as Comirnaty).[28][1][29] Türeci is involved in more than 500 patents filed with her company and partners.

Memberships

Türeci is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Resarch (AACR), the German Society of Immunology, and the German Society of Hematology and Oncology.

Awards

See also

References
  1. "The Husband-and-Wife Team Behind the Leading Vaccine to Solve Covid-19", The New York Times, 10 November 2020, retrieved 17 November 2020 (subscription required)
  2. "Das Führungsteam", Homepage (in German), BioNTech, retrieved 30 November 2020
  3. Vorlesungsverzeichnis, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, retrieved 30 November 2020
  4. "Privatdozentin Dr. Özlem Türeci", DFG - GEPRIS - (in German), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, retrieved 30 November 2020
  5. Lastruperin ist Corona-Hoffnung: Biontech-Gründerin Türeci (in German), NDR, retrieved 30 November 2020
  6. Sansür, Latif (29 November 2020). "Dünyanın konuştuğu bilim insanı Türeci'nin fotoğraf albümü". Sözcu. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  7. Budde, Reinhold, Forscherin lebte in Bad Driburg (in German), retrieved 30 November 2020
  8. Türeci, Özlem, Nachweis von DNA-Polymorphismen anhand von Minisatelliten-Profilen bei Tumoren und Zellinien und Untersuchungen zur Caseinkinase 2 in der Oozyte von Xenopus laevis, retrieved 24 December 2020
  9. "Werte schaffen durch Innovation" (PDF), Natur & Geist-Das Forschungsmagazin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, retrieved 30 November 2020
  10. Stolzenberg, Tobias (2018), "Zwei gegen den Krebs", Technology Review (in German), Hannover: Heise Verlag, 5, retrieved 26 October 2020
  11. Läsker, Kristina (14 January 2009), "Die Krebsforscherin", Süddeutsche Zeitung / Ausgabe München (in German), p. 18, retrieved 26 October 2020
  12. BMBF LS5 Internetredaktion, Cluster für Individualisierte ImmunIntervention (Ci3) - BMBF Spitzencluster (in German), retrieved 30 November 2020
  13. Chairpersons – Cluster for Individualized Immune Intervention (Ci3) e.V., retrieved 30 November 2020
  14. Who We Are, Association for Cancer Immunotherapy CIMT, retrieved 30 November 2020
  15. "SPEAKERS", Science Asia Conference, retrieved 30 November 2020
  16. "AG Sahin/Türeci", 14. Mainzer Sommer Uni, III. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, retrieved 30 November 2020
  17. Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Özlem Türeci, Internistin in 55131 Mainz, Obere Zahlbacher Straße 63 (in German), retrieved 30 November 2020
  18. Rodríguez Fernández, Clara (9 October 2017), The Woman Developing the Next Generation of Cancer Immunotherapy, retrieved 30 November 2020
  19. Festakt zum Jubiläum der Uni Mainz (in German), retrieved 30 November 2020
  20. Über TRON (in German), TRON – Translationale Onkologie an der Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, retrieved 26 October 2020
  21. Miller, Joe (20 March 2020), "Ugur Sahin: The Immunologist Racing To Find a Vaccine", Financial Times, retrieved 26 October 2020
  22. Erfolgreiches „Mainzer Modell“ (in German), 26 March 2015, retrieved 30 November 2020
  23. Stolzenberg, Tobias (8 October 2018), "Zwei gegen den Krebs", Heise Online (in German), retrieved 26 October 2020
  24. "Astellas kauft Ganymed", Transkript (in German), 28 October 2016, retrieved 26 October 2020
  25. Biontech (31 March 2020), Form 20-F, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, retrieved 10 November 2020
  26. Hofmann, Siegfried; Terpitz, Katrin (16 March 2016), "Impfung gegen Krebs", Handelsblatt (in German), p. 16
  27. Biontech: Mit Lichtgeschwindigkeit zum ersten Corona-Impfstoff (in German), Deutsche Welle (DW), 9 November 2020, retrieved 30 November 2020
  28. Hofmann, Siegfried; Wermke, Christian (23 April 2020), "Ugur Sahin und Özlem Türeci: Dieses Medizinerpaar entwickelt einen Covid-19-Impfstoff.", Handelsblatt (in German), retrieved 26 October 2020
  29. Özlem Türeci's research while affiliated with Helmholtz Institut Mainz and other places, ResearchGate, retrieved 30 November 2020
  30. Preisträger Vincenz-Czerny-Preis und deren Arbeiten (in German), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hämatologie und Medizinische Onkologie, retrieved 26 October 2020
  31. Ugur Sahin, Managing Director (Science and Research) of Translational Oncology at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz – Tron, University of Birmingham, retrieved 26 October 2020
  32. "Erfolgreiche Suche nach Tumormarkern", Ärzte Zeitung (in German), Springer Medizin, 13 October 2005, retrieved 26 October 2020
  33. Koehler-Preis (in German), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immunologie, retrieved 26 October 2020
  34. "Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis: Startseite", Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis (in German), retrieved 17 December 2020
  35. Miller, Joe; Cookson, Clive (16 December 2020), "FT People of the Year: BioNTech's Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci", Financial Times, retrieved 17 December 2020
  36. "Axel Springer Award 2021 geht an Biontech-Gründer", Die Welt, 23 December 2020, retrieved 23 December 2020

Further reading
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