Husband and wife Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci are the couple behind the Covid-19 vaccine that could change the world
Physicians Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci, who bonded over their love of medical research, are the married couple behind the Covid-19 vaccine that could change the world.
Mr Sahin came from humble roots to build two billion-dollar companies but still rides to work on his mountain bike.
Now the modest 55-year-old physician turned chief executive of a German biotech firm and his wife Oezlem Tuereci, 53, a fellow board member of BioNTech, are being hailed as the dream team behind the worlds hopes for a Covid vaccine.
Pfizer, the US pharmaceutical giant behind Viagra, published preliminary data showing the vaccine was 90 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19 infection.
The breakthrough was the first real ray of hope in the pandemic and could spell an end to the perpetual locking down and opening up cycle that Britain has been trapped in since March.
Born in Turkey, Sahin was raised in Germany, where his parents worked in a Ford factory.
Trained as a doctor, Mr Sahin became a professor and researcher focused on immunotherapy.
He worked at teaching hospitals in Cologne and the south western city of Homburg, where he met immunologist Miss Tuereci during his early academic career.
Medical research and oncology became a shared passion among them.
Tuereci, the daughter of a Turkish physician who had migrated to Germany, once said in an interview that even on the day of their wedding, both made time for lab work.
Together they honed in on the immune system as a potential ally in the fight against cancer and tried to address the unique genetic makeup of each tumour.
Life as entrepreneurs started in 2001 when they set up Ganymed Pharmaceuticals to develop cancer-fighting antibodies.
Sahin by then a professor at Mainz university never gave up academic research and teaching. Ganynmed was sold to Japans Astellas in 2016 for 1.4 billion dollars.
Sahin and Tuereci co-founded BioNTech in 2008, with the aim of pursuing a much broader range of cancer immunotherapy tools.
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