Özlem Türeci

Özlem Türeci, M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of BioNTech, is a physician, immunologist, and cancer researcher with translational and clinical experience. Türeci has helped lead the discovery of cancer antigens, the development of mRNA-based individualized and off-the-shelf vaccine candidates and other types of immunotherapies which are currently in clinical development. Along with her team at BioNTech, Özlem Türeci developed one of the first mRNA-vaccines for effectively preventing COVID-19 infections. At the Falling Walls Science Summit 2021, Özlem Türeci talked about what the “mRNA Toolbox” has in store for the future, and how to translate science into medication.

In 2008, Türeci, her husband Uğur Şahin, and Christoph Huber founded the Mainz-based biotechnology company BioNTech. They share their insights and discuss how science can make it out of the lab and into the field in the 2021 Plenary Table "Translating Science into Medical Application".