While the number of cases in the corona virus exceeds 3 million on a global scale, scientists and pharmaceutical companies in different parts of the world are trying to complete the corona virus vaccines and medicines that they developed in the hope of preventing the corona virus.
While the corona virus vaccine started to be tested on people in the USA, Germany was the first country to try the corona vaccine on people in Europe. The company named BioNtech, which is based in Germany and is the CEO of Turkish professor Uğur Şahin, started working on people.
PAUL EHRLICH INSTITUTE APPROVED
Professor Şahin, who conducts vaccination studies with his wife Özlem Türeci, will vaccinate people in the risk group according to the results that will come in June. According to the current plan, 200 people aged between 18 and 55 are expected to be vaccinated, while the company is said to be working with the American-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
BioNtech’s CEO Professor Uğur Şahin and his wife oncologist Özlem Türeci. Photo: SÖZCÜ
The Paul-Ehrlich Institute has approved the vaccine to be tested on humans and it is stated that if positive results are obtained in the first phase of the two-stage test, it will also be done to those in the risk group.
The vaccine named “BNT162” developed by BioNTech, which is led by Uğur Şahin and directed by oncologist doctor Türeci, belongs to the genetic-based vaccines group and contains the genetic information of the corona virus. Through the vaccine, cells in the body receive proteins and produce virus protein, that is, antigen. The body also produces antibodies against these antigens and strengthens the immune system and defeats the virus.
12 YEARS AGO BİONTECH INSTALLED
Professor born in İskenderun. Dr. Uğur Şahin is an immigrant who came to Cologne with his family when he was 4 years old. Şahin studied medicine, taking the example of Paul Ehrlich, who found the modern immune system in the 19th century and developed chemotherapy for cancer for the first time. After his education, he started working at the University of Hamburg, Saarland. Şahin also met his wife of Istanbul origin Özlem Türeci during his medical education at Hamburg University. Then, Şahin, who specialized in cancer treatment in different universities, founded the biotechnology company BioNTech in 2008 after working with Swiss scientist Rolf Zinkernagel, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1996.
