As people around the world are getting vaccinated against Covid-19, we have Dr. Özlem Türeci to thank. Not only is she the co-founder of BioNTech, but she is also half of the team that designed the first Covid-19 vaccine, with Pzifer, in under a year. 1/
Art: Sam Whitney
Art: Sam Whitney
Dr. Türeci has had quite an accomplished career. As a physician, scientist, and entrepreneur she has founded multiple biotech companies and, along with her partner and husband, became the first Turkish Germans among Germany's top 100 wealthiest people list in 2020. 2/
She earned her doctorate from Saarland University in Homburg, Germany in the 1990s, where she also met her husband, Dr. Uğur Şahin. 3/
In 2001, she cofounded Ganymed Pharmeceuticals and served as its CEO and Chief Medical Officer. She's now president of Germany's Association for Cancer Immunotherapy. #WomensHistoryMonth 4/
The primary target of Dr. Türeci and Dr. Şahin’s research has been developing mRNA vaccines to fight cancer. This primed the doctors for their groundbreaking work of turning the immune system against the Covid-19 spike protein. 5/
While most vaccines use a dead or weakened version of the virus, it was Türeci and Şahin’s background in mRNA research that led them to develop a vaccine that triggers an immune response by equipping the body to produce proteins directly in the cell. 6/
And now she and her husband are set to receive one of Germany's highest honors, the Knight Commander's Cross of the Federal Order of Merit for contributing to the "containment of the coronavirus pandemic." 7/
@BioNTech_Group and @pfizer have been in negotiations with more than 30 countries to authorize the vaccine and help make it available. And Dr. Türeci, one of our #WomensHistoryMonth honorees, is hoping to return to her work of finding a vaccine for cancer. 8/
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