Uğur Şahin
CEO of BioNTech
Uğur Şahin
CEO of BioNTech

Uğur Şahin is an immunologist and CEO of BioNTech, the com­pany which developed one of the major vaccines against covid-19. His family emigrated to Germany from Türkiye, where he studied medicine at the University of Co­logne. He has worked as a professor and lecturer at vari­ous university hospitals across Germany. In 2011, Şa­hin became deputy director of the University Center for Tumor Diseases Mainz and, in 2017, Şahin helped establish the new Helmholtz Institute HI-TRON. But it was in 2008 when Şahin founded BioNTech with his wife, Özlem Türeci and mentor, Christoph Huber. The main focus of his research work is the discovery of mRNA-based drugs for use as in­dividualised cancer immunotherapies, but with the ad­vent of the covid-19 pandemic, BioNTech pivoted to using mRNA-based drugs towards fighting this new threat. By the end of 2020, BioNTech developed the BNT162b2 vaccine and reported a 95% effica­cy against the covid-19 disease and became the first mRNA drug approved for human use. Subsequently, Şahin entered a partnership with Pfizer pharmaceuti­cal company to distribute it worldwide.

Source of Influence: Science & Technology

Status: Featured in current year