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Uğur Şahin

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Uğur Şahin
Uğur Şahin in 2019
Born (1965-09-29) 29 September 1965 (age 59)
İskenderun, Hatay, Turkey
NationalityTurkish
CitizenshipGermany
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Professor of Oncology
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Company Founder
Years active1991–present
Employers
  • University of Cologne
  • Saarland University
  • University Hospital Zurich
  • University Medical Center Mainz
Organizations
  • German Society of Immunology
  • American Association for Cancer Research
  • American Society of Clinical Oncology
  • Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer
Known for
OfficeCEO BioNTech SE
Term2008–present
Spouse
​
(m. 2002)​
Awards
  • Merit Award of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
  • Georges Köhler Prize
  • German Cancer Award
  • Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Mustafa Prize (2019)
WebsiteProfile at BioNTech

Uğur Şahin ([uˈuɾ ʃaː.hin]; born September 29, 1965) is a German oncologist and CEO of BioNTech who helped develop one of the major vaccines against COVID-19.[1][2] His main fields of research are cancer research and immunology.[3]

Şahin's family, originally from Turkey, moved to Germany when he was four years old. He grew up in Cologne and studied medicine at the University of Cologne, completing a PhD there in cancer immunotherapy. He initially remained in academia, conducting research at university hospitals in Saarland and Zurich and eventually founding a research group at the University of Mainz in 2000, where he became a professor of experimental oncology in 2006. In 2001, while maintaining his position at the university, he began to engage in entrepreneurial activities, co-founding two pharmaceutical companies in 2001 and 2008 with his partner Özlem Türeci, who is also a leading immunologist. The second of these companies, BioNTech, developed one of the major vaccines used to fight the COVID-19 pandemic together with Pfizer Inc in 2020. As a result of the company's increase in value, Şahin and Türeci became the first Germans with Turkish roots among Germany's top 100 wealthiest people list.[4]

Life

Uğur Şahin was born on September 29, 1965 in İskenderun, in the Hatay province, Turkey, in an Alevi family. He moved with his mother to Germany at the age of four to live with his father, who worked in Cologne's Ford factories.[5][6] Besides football, he was interested in popular science books, which he borrowed from the Catholic church library. Initially, his primary school teacher recommended that he attend a hauptschule, which would not have readily enabled him to attend university; upon intervention of his German neighbour, he went to a gymnasium instead.[7][8][9] He graduated from the Erich-Kästner-Gymnasium in Cologne-Niehl in 1984, the first child at the school with Turkish guest worker parents. He took advanced courses in mathematics and chemistry.[10]

Şahin met his future wife, Özlem Türeci, during his work at the Saarland University Hospital (Universität des Saarlandes) in Homburg, where Türeci completed her last year of studies. The couple married in 2002; they have one daughter.[11]

He and his spouse are among the hundred wealthiest people in Germany.[12] As of May 2021, Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth at US$ 8.35 billion.[1]

Education

Şahin studied medicine at the University of Cologne from 1984 to 1992.[13][14] He received his doctorate in 1992 with a thesis on immunotherapy for tumor cells (bispecific monoclonal antibodies for the activation of cytostatic precursors on tumor cells), which was graded summa cum laude. His thesis supervisor was Michael Pfreundschuh [de]. From 1992 to 1994, he studied mathematics at the Fernuniversität Hagen.[15]

Career

Şahin worked as a physician for internal medicine and hematology/oncology from 1991 to 2000 at the University Hospital of Cologne [de] and then at the Saarland University Hospital in Homburg. He habilitated in 1999 in the field of molecular medicine and immunology. After working at the Institute for Experimental Immunology of the University Hospital of Zürich in 2000, he moved to the University Medical Center Mainz. There, he has been working in various leading positions in cancer research and immunology since 2001 and has been a professor for experimental oncology at the III. medical clinic since 2006.[16]

Şahin works on identifying and characterizing new target molecules (antigens) for the immunotherapy of cancer tumors, e.g. breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, and other dangerous cancers. The aim is to develop a cancer vaccine based on ribonucleic acid (RNA), a messenger substance with genetic information that triggers a corresponding reaction of the immune system, leading to the inhibition and regression of tumors. These RNA vaccines do not cause a permanent genetic change in the genetic material of the cells. However, they are, in simple terms, dissolved again after "single-use" to form a protein. One problem is to develop a genetic engineering process so that these vaccines trigger a direct and targeted response from the immune system after injection. In developing such optimized RNA chains, Uğur Şahin and his research team have achieved remarkable success in recent years.

Şahin sees himself as an immune engineer who tries to use the body's antiviral mechanisms to treat, for example, cancer when the immune system is otherwise unable to fight it. He sees his vision in guiding the immune system to "protect us from or alleviate certain diseases."[17][18]

University Medical Center Mainz

In 2000, Şahin became head of the junior research group of the SFB 432 of the University Medical Center Mainz [de], and in 2003 chair of the Tumor Vaccine Center.[15][19] Since 2006 he has been a private lecturer in the Department of Experimental and Translational Oncology. In 2010, he was the founder of Translational Oncology at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (TRON). This is a biopharmaceutical research institute that develops new diagnostic tools and drugs to treat cancer and other diseases with a high unmet medical need.[20] Its focus is on individualized medicine and cancer immunotherapy. From its foundation until September 2019, he was its scientific director.[21] Since then, he has been working as a scientific advisor and supervisor of Ph.D. students.[22] For his work in this field, Şahin was awarded the German Cancer Prize [de].[23][24] He is deputy director of the University Center for Tumor Diseases Mainz (UCT Mainz), founded in 2011.[25][26] The UCT Mainz is an association of all oncologically active institutions of the University Medical Center Mainz that focus on clinical oncology or oncological research.[27] In 2017, it was involved in establishing the new Helmholtz Institute HI-TRON, which is a cooperation between the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and TRON.[28][29][30] He is one of the scientific directors of the new Helmholtz Institute.[31] During the founding ceremony, Şahin declared that he believes "cancer can be defeated in the future."[32]

Ganymed Pharmaceuticals

Şahin co-founded the company Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in 2001 with his wife, Özlem Türeci.[33] This company developed the monoclonal antibody Zolbetuximab, which is to be used against esophageal and gastrointestinal cancer.[34] In 2016, the company was sold to Astellas Pharma for an amount of at least triple-digit millions.[35] After successful Phase II studies, the drug is in Phase III as of 2020.[36][37][38] The project he led to developing innovative vaccines against cancer was one of twelve projects awarded a sponsorship prize by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2006 as part of the newly created biotechnology start-up offensive (GO-Bio).

BioNTech

Headquarters of BioNTech SE in Mainz

Şahin was one of the founders of the biotechnology company BioNTech, based in Mainz, Germany, in 2008 and has been its CEO ever since.[39][40] BioNTech is focused on developing and manufacturing active immunotherapies for a patient-specific approach to the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases.[41] The main focus of his research work is the discovery of mRNA-based drugs for use as individualized cancer immunotherapies, as vaccines against infectious diseases, and as protein replacement therapies for rare diseases.[42] He holds a minority interest in the listed company.[43][44] Since April 2020, BioNTech has been researching a vaccine against the lung disease COVID-19 under Şahin and his wife Özlem Türeci, who is also a member of the company's board of directors.[45][46] Şahin holds several patents that he has filed with his company and partners.

Against the background of the debate about the distribution of a potential vaccine, Şahin stated that one key in the fight against COVID-19 is international cooperation. There is "no discussion" whether a vaccine is available only for individual countries.[47][48] The efficacy and safety of a vaccine, including side effects, must always be communicated transparently. He is committed to ensuring that this is done repeatedly and reliably to inform themselves and feel informed. Şahin is against compulsory vaccination and emphasizes the voluntary nature of the vaccination.[49] In fall 2020, he entered a partnership with the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer and planned to obtain approval for a vaccine before the end of 2020.[50][51][52] In November, the company reported a 95 percent efficacy of the BNT162b2 vaccine.[53]

In 2019, Şahin was awarded the Mustafa Prize, a biennial prize for Muslims and non-Muslim scientists in Muslim countries in science and technology.[54][55]

Memberships

Şahin has been a member of the German Society of Immunology [de] since 2004, and a member of the Program Committee of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), Regulatory Research Group, Mainz, since 2008. In 2012, he was among the founders of the Cluster of Individualized Immunointervention (CI3) in Mainz.[56][57] He has been a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) since 2014 and of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) since 2015.[16]

Publications

The U.S. National Library of Medicine lists 345 clinical studies and other publications where Şahin was involved; he is first author of 49.[58] The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office lists several patents related to him.[59]

Awards

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c "Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Ugur Sahin". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved June 21, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Hatice Akyün (April 26, 2020). ""Wir sind Impfstoff": Über zwei Wissenschaftler, die nicht nur Hoffnung gegen das Virus machen" ["We are vaccine": Two Scientists give hope, and not just against the virus]. Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  3. ^ Johannes Göbel (March 26, 2015). "Erfolgreiches "Mainzer Modell"" [Successful Mainz Model]. Deutschland-Portal (in German). Fazit Communication, German Federal Foreign Office. Retrieved October 26, 2020. The awards are to be given to them by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace, the presidential residence on March 19.
  4. ^ Philip Oltermann (November 10, 2020). "Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci: German 'dream team' behind vaccine". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021. The comments hinted at the scientific rigour, unrelenting work ethic and appetite for entrepreneurship that has seen Sahin and Türeci's company outpace more well-established competitors in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine – and made the couple the first Germans with Turkish roots to enter their country's rich list this autumn, at number 93.
  5. ^ Franz Josef Wagner (October 7, 2020). "Betrifft: Wir sind Impfstoff". B.Z. (in German). No. 234. B.Z. Ullstein. p. 18.
  6. ^ "Corona-Impfstoff könnte Biontech-Gründer Ugur Sahin weltberühmt machen". RTL (in German). October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
  7. ^ Külahçı, Ahmet (November 18, 2020). "'Der Retter kommt' (Kurtarıcı geliyor)". Hürriyet. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  8. ^ Rossmann, Ernst Dieter; Samsami, Behrang (December 2, 2020). "Gemeinsam denken" [Thinking together]. Der Freitag. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  9. ^ Anne Seibring (December 11, 2020). "Editorial". Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  10. ^ Bastian Ebel (November 11, 2020), Stolz an Kölner Schule: Irrer Lebensweg: Ex-Abiturient wird in Corona-Zeit zum Weltstar [Pride at a Cologne School: Crazy Life Path: Former Student Becomes World Star in Corona Times] (in German), retrieved November 20, 2020
  11. ^ Tobias Stolzenberg (2018), "Zwei gegen den Krebs", Technology Review (in German), no. 5, Hannover: Heise Verlag, retrieved October 26, 2020
  12. ^ Rudnick, Hendrikje (November 11, 2020). "Von Gastarbeiter-Kindern zu Milliardären: Biontech-Chef Ugur Sahin und seine Frau Özlem Türeci gehören zu den 100 reichsten Deutschen". Business Insider (in German). Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  13. ^ Balzter, Sebastian (August 21, 2016). "Das Traumpaar der Biotech-Branche" [The Dream Couple of the Biotech Industry] (PDF). Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (in German). p. 27. Retrieved October 26, 2020 – via hmw-emissionshaus.ag.
  14. ^ "Entwicklung innovativer Impfstoffe gegen Krebserkrankungen" [Development of innovative vaccines against cancer]. YouTube (in German). 10:47. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
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  20. ^ Über TRON (in German), TRON – Translationale Onkologie an der Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, retrieved October 26, 2020
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  22. ^ Neues Spitzenforschungsinstitut in Mainz: TRON – Translationale Onkologie. Bindeglied zwischen Universität, Universitätsmedizin und Wirtschaft., Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Weiterbildung und Kultur des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz, February 18, 2010, retrieved October 26, 2020
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  33. ^ Joe Miller (March 20, 2020), "Ugur Sahin: The Immunologist Racing To Find a Vaccine", Financial Times, retrieved October 26, 2020
  34. ^ Tobias Stolzenberg (October 8, 2018), "Zwei gegen den Krebs", Heise Online (in German), retrieved October 26, 2020
  35. ^ "Astellas kauft Ganymed", Transkript (in German), October 28, 2016, retrieved October 26, 2020
  36. ^ Türeci, Ö.; Sahin, U.; Schulze-Bergkamen, H.; Zvirbule, Z.; Lordick, F. (June 26, 2019), "A Multicentre, Phase Iia Study of Zolbetuximab as a Single Agent in Patients With Recurrent or Refractory Advanced Adenocarcinoma of the Stomach or Lower Oesophagus: The Mono Study", Annals of Oncology: Official Journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 1487–1495, doi:10.1093/annonc/mdz199, ISSN 1569-8041, PMC 6771222, PMID 31240302
  37. ^ Antibody Shines in Advanced Gastric Cancer, June 5, 2016, retrieved October 26, 2020
  38. ^ "A Study of Zolbetuximab (IMAB362) Plus CAPOX Compared With Placebo Plus CAPOX as First-line Treatment of Subjects With Claudin (CLDN) 18.2-Positive, HER2-Negative, Locally Advanced Unresectable or Metastatic Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction (GEJ) Adenocarcinoma", ClinicalTrials, U.S. National Library of Medicine, retrieved October 26, 2020
  39. ^ Ministerpräsidentin Malu Dreyer sagt Mainzer Impfstoffentwickler BioNTech Unterstützung zu. (in German), Staatskanzlei Rheinland-Pfalz, May 15, 2020, retrieved October 26, 2020
  40. ^ "Ugur Sahin, Profile and Biography", Bloomberg, retrieved October 26, 2020
  41. ^ Hofmann, Siegfried; Terpitz, Katrin (March 16, 2016), "Impfung gegen Krebs", Handelsblatt (in German), p. 16
  42. ^ Kutter, Susanne (June 3, 2016), "Der große Schlag im Kampf gegen den Krebs", WirtschaftsWoche (in German), no. 23, p. 14
  43. ^ "BioNTech-Aktie", finanzen.net (in German), retrieved October 26, 2020
  44. ^ Wolfram Weimer (October 13, 2020), "Der Impfstoff naht", n-tv (in German), retrieved October 26, 2020
  45. ^ Siegfried Hofmann, Christian Wermke (April 23, 2020), "Ugur Sahin und Özlem Türeci: Dieses Medizinerpaar entwickelt einen Covid-19-Impfstoff.", Handelsblatt (in German), retrieved October 26, 2020
  46. ^ Gelles, David (November 10, 2020). "The Husband-and-Wife Team Behind the Leading Vaccine to Solve Covid-19". The New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  47. ^ Kopplin, Ilka; Schleidt, Daniel (March 16, 2020), "Mainzer Unternehmen: Wie Biontech gegen Corona kämpft.", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German), retrieved October 26, 2020
  48. ^ Salz, Jürgen (September 8, 2020), "Biontech-Chef Ugur Sahin: "Wir wollen keine Abkürzung gehen."", WirtschaftsWoche (in German), retrieved October 26, 2020
  49. ^ Fanny Jimenez (October 20, 2020), "Biontech-CEO Ugur Sahin über den Corona-Impfstoff: "Wir haben unser Projekt 'Lightspeed' genannt, um klarzumachen: Wir vergeuden keine Zeit."", Business Insider (in German), finanzen, retrieved October 26, 2020
  50. ^ Paul R. La Monica (October 16, 2020), "Pfizer May File for Early COVID-19 Vaccine Use – but Not Until After the Election", CNN Business, Cable News Network, A Warner Media Company, retrieved October 26, 2020
  51. ^ Bojan Pancevski, Jared S. Hopkins (October 22, 2020), "How Pfizer Partner BioNTech Became a Leader in Coronavirus Vaccine Race. Small German Biotech Was a Niche Player in Futuristic Cancer Treatments—Then Pivoted When COVID-19 Broke Out in China.", The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, ISSN 0099-9660, retrieved October 26, 2020
  52. ^ Jürgen Salz, Silke Wettach (September 9, 2020), "Nach zähen Verhandlungen: EU kauft Millionen Dosen Impfstoff bei Biontech und Pfizer ein.", WirtschaftsWoche (in German), retrieved October 26, 2020
  53. ^ heise online, Biontech/Pfizer-Corona-Impfstoff: 95 Prozent Wirksamkeit nach Phase-3-Auswertung (in German), retrieved November 24, 2020
  54. ^ Gelles, David (November 10, 2020). "The Husband-and-Wife Team Behind the Leading Vaccine to Solve Covid-19". The New York Times.
  55. ^ "Mustafa Prize". Mustafa Prize.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  56. ^ The Cluster for Individualized Immune Intervention (Ci3), retrieved October 26, 2020
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  59. ^ "Advanced Search", Patent Full-Text and Image Database, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, retrieved November 25, 2020
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  70. ^ Miller, Joe; Cookson, Clive (December 16, 2020). "FT People of the Year: BioNTech's Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci". Financial Times. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  71. ^ Hessler, Uwe; Wrede, Insa. "BioNTech vaccine inventors receive Germany's Knight Commander's Cross | DW | 19.03.2021". DW.COM.
  72. ^ Princess of Asturias Award 2021
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