Founder Stories: A Conversation with Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, Founders of BioNTech
With their work, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci solved the basic mRNA-associated problem, namely the issue of low and short-lived protein production. In parallel, BioNTech colleague Katalin Karikó approached the emerging technology from another angle and found that the immunogenicity of mRNA could be mitigated effectively by modifying the nucleotide uridine. Discovery by discovery, improvement by improvement, the company’s scientific teams harnessed the power of mRNA while exploring new and exciting ways to deploy it. To date, the scientists behind BioNTech have optimized the structural components of mRNA (cap, the poly-A tail and its untranslated regions) to achieve increased intracellular stability of synthetic mRNA and translation, especially in immune cells. The rapid development of our COVID-19 vaccine was only possible because we were able to build on the research, expertise and technology that we have accumulated over decades. BioNTech was founded on the idea of using mRNA to activate the immune system against a patient’s individual tumors – an approach that we believe can also be tailored to target several kinds of diseases. Through our groundbreaking R&D efforts, we have become a pioneer in many ways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioNTech #biotechnology #science #vc #startup #startups #startupideas #biology #biotech #chemistry #business #speech #speeches #investing #investment #lifescience #casestudy #scientist #scientists #inventors #inventor #inventions #invention #research #innovation #siliconvalley #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurs #healthcare #genomics #genetics #history #biologia #technology #tech #founderstories #founder #founders #founderstory #scienceandtechnology #sciencestory #stories #bioengineering #engineering #engineer #biochemistry #discovery #discover #technical #health #education #educational #learning #learn #podcast #podcasts #podcasting #podcaster #technews Axial Newsletter: https://axial.substack.com/ Build with Axial: https://build.axialvc.com/
