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UÄŸur Åžahin. Photo by Raimond Spekking on

Top 10 Facts about Ugur Sahin

Ugur Sahin is popularly known as a German oncologist and immunologist and he is notable for his significant contribution to the development of RNA vaccines and the BNT162b2 vaccine.

In 2000 he founded a research group at the University of Mainz and with his group, they worked on different researches such as establishing strategies that allow different layers of mRNA vaccine optimization.

Sahin is an entrepreneur, and he engaged in entrepreneurial activities, co-founding two pharmaceutical companies in 2001 and 2008 with his wife and his partner.

Sahin and his spouse Ozlem Türeci became the first Germans with Turkish roots, among  Germany’s 100 wealthiest people.

Learn more about Ugur Sahin in these top 10 facts.

1. Ugur Sahin’s family is originally from Turkey

Sahin was born on 19 September 1965 in Iskenderun into an Alawite family of Turkish nationality.

His father worked in Cologne’s Ford factories, Germany Ugur and his mother moved when he was four years to join his father.

Ugur grew up in cologne and was interested in football and popular science books he used to borrow from the library.

2. Ugur Sahin education

Ugur attended Erich Kastner Gymnasium. He was taking advanced courses in mathematics and chemistry and graduated in 1984.

He was the first child at the school with Turkish guest worker parents. After gymnasium, he joined the University of Cologne from 1984 to 1992 to study medicine.

In 1992 he recorded his doctorate with a thesis on immunotherapy against tumor cells which was graded Summa Cum Laude. Ugur thesis supervisor was Michael Pfreundschuh.

Ugur joined FernUniversität Hayen from 1992 to 1994 , he studied mathematics. FernUniversität Hayen is a public research university primarily focused on distance learning.

3. He is the CEO OF BioNTech

Main administration and laboratory building of BioNTech SE. Photo by Epizentrum on

Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Türeci and Christoph Huber founded the biotechnology company. The company is based in Mainz, Germany and Ugur serve as its CEO.

The company focuses on developing and manufacturing active immunotherapies for a patient-specific approach to treating cancer and other serious diseases.

Ugur’s focus on his research is the discovery of mRNA-based drugs for use as protein replacement therapies for rare diseases, vaccines against infectious diseases and individualized cancer immune therapies.

When COVID-19 hit the world, BioNTech started researching a vaccine for Pfizer’s pharmaceutical company and developed the BNTI62b2 vaccine.

Before the end of 2020, the planned to obtain approval for the vaccine. In November, the company reported 95% efficiency of the BNT162b2 vaccine.

BioNTech exploits the full potential of this body’s immune system and conducts clinical studies to translate scientific knowledge into practical application.

4. Ugur’s career at university Medical Centre Mainz

Sahin became head of the junior researcher group of SFBS 432 of the University Medical Center Mainz in 2000 and later became the chair of the Tumor vaccine center in 2003.

Sahin worked as an Associate professor in the department of Experiment and Translational Oncology at the University of Mainz from 2006 to 2013. He holds a W3 professorship at the University Medical Center of Mainz.

In 2011 university Medical Center Mainz founded the University Center for Tumor disease Mainz(UCT). Sahin was appointed as the deputy director.

The UCT Mainz is an association of all the institutions at the University that focus on clinical oncology. Sahin was included in establishing the new Helmholtz Institute HITRON in 2017, It was a cooperation between the German Cancer research center and TRON.

Sahin led this project; the project was for developing an innovative vaccine against cancer and was one of twelve projects awarded a sponsorship prize by the German Federal Ministry of Educational and Research in 2006 as part of the newly created biotechnology start-up offensive.

5. Ugur Sahin’s main fields of research are cancer research and Immunology

Ugur Sahin. Photo outsourced from

His early research with Türeci  focused on identifying and characterizing new target molecules for cancer immunotherapy.

They discovered tumor antigens relevant for the treatment of various types of cancer, such as lung cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer, among many other types of cancer.

Sahin and his research team later established strategies that allow different layers of mRNA vaccine optimization. By systematically combining mRNA modification improved the potency of the mRNA vaccine and its adaption to various purposes.

Sahin’s team engineered mRNA vaccines based on non-nucleoside modified mRNA for personalized cancer therapy.

To use their RNA cancer vaccine to share tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) between patients. They developed RNA vaccine nanoparticle delivery strategies that target tissue-delivered dendritic cells body-wide.

6. Ugur Sahin is co-founder of Ganymed Pharmaceuticals

In 2001 Sahin co-founded the company Ganymed pharmaceuticals with his wife Ozlem Turec and his mentor Christoph Huber.

Ganymed pharmaceuticals developed the monoclonal antibody Zolbetuximab for use against esophageal and gastrointestinal cancer. The drug significantly boosted advanced gastric cancer patients’ overall survival after showing in a randomized clinical trial in 2016.

Sahin and his co-founder sold the company to Astellas Pharma for over 400 million Euros. As of 2021, the drug is in phase III trials.

7. Ugur Sahin amassed many awards in his career

Sahin’s career has successfully received many prestigious awards he can boast about.

In 1995 he was awarded a merit award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Vincenz Czerny prize of the German Society of Hematology and oncology, an honorary doctorate from the Philipps University of Marburg, and his wife in 2022, among many other awards.

8. Ugur Sahin membership

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Sahin has been a member of the German Society of Immunology since 2004 and the Program Committee of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy Regulatory Research Group Mainz since 2008.

Sahin was among the founder of the cluster of individualized Immunointorvention (C13) in Mainz in 2012.

Also, he has been a member of the American Association for Cancer Research since 2014 and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) since 2015. He was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization(EMBO) IN 2021.

9. Ugur Sahin career

Sahin worked as an internal medicine and hematology physician from 1991 to 2000 at the University Hospital of Cologne, chaired by Volker Diehl. Sahin also worked at the Saarland University Hospital in Hamburg.

In 1999 Sahin habilitated in the field of molecular medicine and immunology. After one year of paid leave, Hans Hengurtner at the Institute for Experimental Immunology at the University Hospital of Zurich in 2000.

10. Ugur Sahin publication

The US National library of medicine listed 345 clinical studies and other publications in which Sahin was involved, while the US Patent and Trademark office listed several patents related to him.

Sahin was ranked in Nature Biotechnology as one of the top 20 translation researchers in the years 2015, 2018 and 2019 based on the top-cited patents over the past five years and H-Index, a calculation of the impact of a researcher’s publication over time.