Still, the entire ideological frame of Germany’s right-wing is at odds with a heterogeneous social structure as well as the demographics of Germany. (Photograph by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Illustrations or photos) Michael Ciaglo/Getty Photos Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, the partner and spouse crew who launched German pharma business BioNTech, have been learning a possible vaccine for tumors making use of a novel technological know-how regarded as messenger RNA (mRNA) when they acquired about… As much as Germans celebrate the success of Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, racism, xenophobia, chauvinism, nationalism, and even Neo-Nazism are not dead in Germany. Background: The monoclonal antibody zolbetuximab (formerly IMAB362), which is being developed as a potential treatment for gastric cancer (GC), targets Claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2), a GC biomarker. Yet, the politics of respectability is the stubborn misbelief that racists would suddenly make a dramatic change of heart and give up their racist attitude if non-white people simply improve, dress better, and behave appropriately. After all, at its core, it is about social, civil and political participation and a fairer distribution of power in a neoliberal economy – if this is at all possible. At the beginning of 2020, when they read reports about the new kind of coronavirus, they decided to produce a vaccine with mRNA. On the upswing, excited and even dazzling speeches on social media complemented the media coverage. Like him, she started as a cancer doctor and, as head of research at Biontech, together with him last year brought the Comirnaty vaccine into the world and thus gave mankind the first vaccine against corona. This involves artificially produced messenger molecules triggering immune responses by inserting genetic components of a foreign substance into cells. Instead, Turks were mistreated as cheap labour and abused as “dirty Turks”. It challenges the right-wing’s narrative of a Volksgemeinschaft. Özlem Türeci, Chief Medical Officer BioNTech. As a consequence, the social model of the status quo and with it, capitalism is consolidated. Dr. Ugur Sahin, left, and Dr. Özlem Türeci, founders of BioNTech. There still is a kind of Kamala-Harris effect. Sahin’s father, like many migrants to Germany, was not treated as guests. – discussion during the past years, the topic of migration, racism, discrimination, multiculturalism, diversity is now discussed broadly as it was actually intended. Their start-up BioNTech was the fastest to develop a COVID-19 vaccine with a new technology. The professor of medicine at the University of Mainz is the son of a Turkish Ford car factory worker. + Women are proud because half of the discovery was made by at least one woman. Read here what makes these companies special. Nevertheless, many Germans have observed – with satisfaction – that the success of Sahin and Türeci is a success against the far-right AfD sitting in the Bundestag – Germany’s parliament. Subscribe here: Ethics Council Chair Alena Buyx answers questions on the compulsory vaccination debate, criticism of the vaccination rate and the role of medical ethics in the pandemic. Türeci folgte dem Beruf ihres Vaters und studierte Medizin an der Universität des Saarlandes. COVID Relief: the Biggest Health Care Expansion in a Decade? The research director designed the vaccine studies, selected the active ingredients and coordinated cooperation with Pfizer. + Germans are proud too because Germans produced the active ingredient to counter the coronavirus, in a German company. Yet, many iterations of pride remains. The lives of Sahin and Türeci remains a life defined by racism and unequal opportunities in Germany. The virologist Sandra Ciesek talks about the new attention her subject is receiving, outstanding achievements and her hope for the future. As the world slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of it will be thanks to Özlem Türeci. One can already imagine the madmen of the anti-vaccination league rejecting the coronavirus vaccine because two Turkish people invented it. Born in Iskenderun, Sahin came to Germany at the age of four. Others try to nullify their success and their importance as part of the standard anti-Turkish abuse metred out on a daily basis. It comes thick and fast when neoliberal dreamers push “anecdotal evidence” even though anecdotes are not evidence. Türeci is currently investing all her energy and knowledge in Biontech, the rapidly growing business that now has approximately 1,800 employees. Die Google-Suche machte aus der Topforscherin jedoch eine "Ehefrau von". Some saw the news as proof that multiculturalism had not failed. He co-founded the company with his wife and fellow board member Özlem Türeci as well as his former teacher, Prof Christoph Huber, who is an Austrian cancer expert. As a trained physician and immunologist, Dr. Özlem Türeci has led her own research group with Prof. Ugur Sahin at the University of Mainz, Germany, since 2000. Sahin and Türeci exemplify that German society can counter racist discrimination and insults. It is the physicians Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci. Sie ist 1967 in Lastrup geboren. Still, the cultural origins of the two researchers were of great interest to others. Did America’s Greediest Corporation Just Get Greedier? Sie wuchs in Lastrup im Landkreis Cloppenburg (Niedersachsen) auf, wo ihr Vater, ein Chirurg, … Thankfully, most young Germans would reject the notion of “being proud to be German”. Auch … They represent a not insignificant triumph against Germany’s right-wing extremists such as those in the right-wing extremist party, the AfD. This is part of an ideology that engineers system stabilising propaganda. Suddenly, the pair is presented in a glorious light even by Germany’s staunchly conservative press. Özlem Türeci wurde 1967 als Kind türkischer Eltern geboren. They did it. Im ZDF-Interview spricht Sahin darüber, was beide antreibt. Depending on where you are in terms of identity politics, the success of Sahin and Türeci is a euphoric identification: + Turkish people living in Germany are present as proud because the pair of scientists have Turkish roots. Of course, the very concept of a monolithic assimilation model is utterly absurd and smacks of the Volksgemeinschaft. The problem in the case of the vaccine is not the appreciation of its incredible importance. The history of the two founders is one of the few exceptional examples of an integration of migrant creating a successful career in Germany despite rampant anti-Turkish sentiments. Because she wanted to help cure disease, she founded a first firm in 2002. und seine Frau Özlem Türeci (M.), die Gründer des Mainzer Corona-Impfstoff-Entwicklers Biontech, sowie der Laudator Sebastian Kurz (2.v.l. In January, the world slowly learned of “this virus, this new virus” that is spreading very quickly, said the Chancellor. Özlem Türeci’s innovative strength and scientific diligence have played a decisive role in the fight against coronavirus: the 53-year-old doctor is Chief Medical Officer at Biontech, the Mainz-based company she founded in 2008 with her husband Uğur Şahin.. However, this l’idée fixe ignores the power of political, economic, structural, and institutionalised forms of discrimination. The rise to explorer superstars has not been sung by the two of them. His wife, who serves as the chief medical officer at the cancer research company BioNTech, was also born into a migrant family. But in all these appropriations, the two were abstracted on aspects of their personalities and turned into trophies for someone else’s self-assurance. Progress requires research. Capitalism defines a person’s value, i.e. In einem Interview erzählte Türeci, dass sie als Kind eigentlich Nonne werden wollte. Cemented is the ideology that everyone is solely responsible for their personal happiness and can be held responsible for those convenient positions above them in a hierarchical society defined by structural violence. Their success felt like a welcome opportunity to celebrate the benefits of immigration. Villagers & Pillagers: Who Will Survive the Collapse? März ist zugleich die erste persönliche Ordensaushändigung durch Bundespräsident Steinmeier in diesem Jahr. Özlem Türeci's 118 research works with 7,438 citations and 20,124 reads, including: Publisher Correction: COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b1 elicits human antibody and TH1 T cell responses It is thanks to Türeci’s work in the laboratory that this idea could be transformed into an effective coronavirus vaccine in just nine months. In short, the mythmaking of neoliberalism continues. With BioNTech, they finally entered the pinnacle of medical research. She is the daughter of a surgeon from Istanbul who worked at a hospital in Lower Saxony during the 1970s and sometimes took his little girl with him to work. German headlines read, from guest worker child to world saviour (Rheinische Post) and from immigrant children to multi-billionaire (Tagesspiegel). In their minds, any positive notion of immigration is associated with hard-working people, i.e. Ordinary migrants do not seem to be a prime example of a so-called “successful integration”. At the same time, the assimilation ideology pretends that only economically successful people are well integrated. Not too long ago, the AfD demanded that German Turks had to be disposed of in Anatolia. In this ideology, someone who has achieved outstanding things and is seen as economically strong has successfully integrated, so it is claimed. Even more obscenely, this is presented as proof that discrimination and inequality do not exist. This is supported by Germany’s right-wing press along with the infamous right-wing tabloid the Bild Zeitung being one of the key favourites when it comes to decades of racial abuse fired towards anyone non-German looking. Unfortunately, much of this also reveals a still existing but also deeply internalised perception of what is labelled as “successful integration” – often determined not through humanity but through economic utility. At present, the research manager is looking after eleven clinical studies – all of them focusing on mRNA-based medicines against cancer. L’idée fixe behind this balderdash is that if marginalised people only adapt sufficiently, the problem of discrimination will solve itself. In adjacent discourses, this has been called respectability in politics. Since then, the world has been celebrating the humble founding couple from Mainz. This is an extraordinary achievement for the Turkish-born Ugur Sahin who is the CEO of a German biotech firm called BioNTech. The shining example of Sahin and Türeci, therefore, rekindled a debate that had already gained a new dynamism this year largely sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement. After a more or less – actually, rather less than more! The Housing Crisis: One Year After Lockdown, Thumb in the Dike: Homelessness and Deepening Inequality, Let’s Stop Pretending Russia and China are Military Threats, The Ongoing Calamity: US Collective Punishment of the Venezuelan People Must End, The U.S. Government Should Promote the General Welfare, Why Brazil is Losing the Global Race for Vaccines. In fact, one of the week’s most important news stories is primarily about the discovery of a promising coronavirus vaccine. You would like to receive regular information about Germany? Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin are two of the big winners of 2020. Her father worked as a medical doctor in Istanbul and later in a small clinic in the north German city of Cloppenburg. There still is a kind of Kamala-Harris effect. Ugur Sahin (2.v.r.) Seine Frau Dr. Özlem Türeci, ebenfalls ein Kind von Einwanderern (ihr Vater war Arzt in Cloppenburg, Deutschland), studierte Medizin an der Universität des Saarlandes in Homburg, begann als Fakultät an der Universität Mainz zu arbeiten und wechselte dann in eine Karriere in der Industrie. The calling is: Look! In today’s Germany, women and men with a migrant background are still disadvantaged. The company's activities focus on the development and production of technologies and drugs for individualized cancer immunotherapy. Özlem Türeci’s innovative strength and scientific diligence have played a decisive role in the fight against coronavirus: the 53-year-old doctor is Chief Medical Officer at, Since then the couple have been carrying out research on mRNA technology. Why Don’t We Take Hate of Asians Seriously? With their first company Ganymede, which they sold in 2016 for a total of 1.4 billion euros, the physicians Sahin and Türeci had already set new standards in cancer research. Sahin and his wife Özlem Türeci are in agreement on this. Worse, Germany’s right-wing believes one must earn one’s Germanness. Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann, Michael Motschmann, and … Meanwhile, racial hatred is misperceived as just and perhaps even noble. The vaccine success of Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci – both with Turkish roots – is fuelling a new diversity discussion in Germany. How a Turkish-German Couple Invented a Coronavirus Vaccine, Barack Obama and the Cunning of American Exceptionalism, How the U.S. is Able to Dictate to the Rest of the World, Pathological Entitlement and the Supremacist Mindset, Biden’s Commerce Secretary is Pure Clintonism. Dr. Ugur Sahin founded BioNTech with his wife, Dr. Özlem Türeci. It sets those who are economically successful against those who are prevented by racist structures to achieve a middle-class existence. Almost unavoidably, successful people with a history of migration will always be instrumentalised by those in power as evidence of the permeability of society. Bei Innovationen ein ganz normaler Vorgang, wie die Medizinerin im Gespräch erläutert. Ugur Sahin 1 , Katalin Karikó 2 , Özlem Türeci 3 Affiliations 1 1] TRON Translational Oncology at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany. Covid-19 did not yet exist. In partnership with the US pharmaceutical group, she managed the clinical trials with over 40,000 participants that in November 2020 achieved the redeeming result: 95% efficacy. It also promotes the implicit ideology that people will assimilate socially and economically in a rather Borg-like fashion. Physicians Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci, who bonded over their love of medical research, are the married couple behind the Covid-19 vaccine that could change the world. Their enthusiasm is a form of ideological self-assurance. Die Medizinerin Özlem Türeci ist maßgeblich für die Entwicklung eines möglichen Corona-Impfstoffs verantwortlich. As recently as a few weeks ago, there were other heroes to celebrate. BioNTech, which Dr. Sahin founded with his wife, Dr. Özlem Türeci, was mostly focused on cancer treatments. Sein rechtes Auge ist wulstig und trüb, seine Brust ist schmerzhaft dünn. They are also two German-Turks. Still, the euphemism of anecdotal evidence assures the ideology that everyone-can-have-success-if-one-will. This ultimately ignores the systemic and above all, racist barriers that immigrants encounter in their efforts at integration. Those who deliberately link economic success to migration serve the neoliberal ideology that supports immigration as long as it serves capital. Later, she worked at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in the field of cancer immunology and, as she says now, it was then that she realised research did not always make its way to the patient’s bed. She studied at Saarland University in Homburg, where she met her husband. Merkel ended the public part of the conversation with a question addressed to the company’s founders Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci of the kind that journalists like to ask when preparing a report. Suddenly, the discovery of a vaccine has been told as a story of successful integration often without the much-needed reflection of the dehumanisation non-Germans experience in Germany. Özlem Türeci is one of the researchers the world has to thank for the first WHO-validated vaccine against coronavirus. Two out of almost 3 million, who are politically meanwhile as polarized as Turks in Turkey. Yet, the stunning success of two non-German people is evident in the fight against racism. Almost sixty years after the arrival of what Germans euphemistically label “guest workers”, Sahin and Türeci are still the exceptions to the rule. “Censor”: When a Word Means Everything, It Means Nothing, We All Need Public Transit…Whether We Ride It or Not, It Takes One To Know One:  To Be Revolutionary the Business Must Be Art, RIP: Andy Levine, a Political Philosopher for Our Time. 2001 gründete sie mit Ihrem Mann Uğur Şahin die Firma Ganymed Pharmaceuticals. Nach dem deutsch-türkischen Power-Paar Uğur Şahin (55) und Özlem Türeci ... Ein paar Tage später wurde ein weiteres Kind auf der Station aufgenommen. In this fight, Sahin and Türeci are the living humanity that encompasses all people. Many newspapers told a successful migration story with headlines like the world is talking about the two Turks who saved humanity. Those useful migrants must be resilient even in adverse situations. Nichole Stephens, Administrative Assistant. Three young men with Turkish and Palestinian roots had helped a woman and a policeman in the Islamist terrorist attack in Vienna. Still, pride can have something to do with a local community – however, it must not be aggressive, narcissistic and hostile. 26.02.2021 Deutschland Biontech-Gründer erhalten Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Doppelte Ehre für das Forscher-Paar Özlem Türeci und Ugur Sahin: Die Preisverleihung am 19. Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin have developed a vaccine against coronavirus. Dr. Sahin immigrated to Germany from Turkey as a child, and Dr. Türeci is the child … Ugur Sahin and his wife Özlem Türeci are pushed into the spotlight having produced Germany’s vaccine against the coronavirus as stock prices exploded, and congratulations poured in from around the world. By now it is largely known that a Turkish-German husband and wife team are the frontrunners in the race to market a vaccine against the coronavirus. Der vierjährige Abdo stammt aus einem Dorf in der Nähe von Hudaydah, nahe an einer der vielen Frontlinien im Jemen. And above all, the hallucinations of Germany’s right-wing raises the inevitable question: integrated into what? These form antibodies against the relevant adversary – whether a virus or a tumour. Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin have developed a vaccine against coronavirus. Germany’s over-the-top pride was quickly followed by irritation. In the eyes of Germany’s right, this is what distinguishes a “good” from “bad” migrant. Sie besuchte u. a. das Städtische Gymnasium in Bad Driburg und das Werner-von-Siemens-Gymnasium in Bad Harzburg. It had never brought a product to market. Congruence of the Great Reset with Population Reduction Program, Such the Profit Profiled. The current narrative is about impeccable immigrant explorers to fill Germans with a kind of self-projected pride. These are taxi drivers, nurses, delivery drivers, construction workers, Amazon workers, assembly line workers, cleaners, etc. At the beginning of 2020, when they read reports about the new kind of, Meticulous detail is important to researcher Türeci, It is thanks to Türeci’s work in the laboratory that this idea could be transformed into an effective, Türeci: research must “make its way to the patient’s bed”, She studied at Saarland University in Homburg, where she met her husband. Since then the couple have been carrying out research on mRNA technology. They have to work diligently fulfilling “their” duty which is never “their” duty, but a duty invented by their bosses. Germany’s over-the-top pride was quickly followed by irritation. The current story is, of course, framed as an “individual” history. It is present as a personal story of two migrants. This involves artificially produced messenger molecules triggering immune responses by inserting genetic components of a foreign substance into cells. Recognition, coupled with economic success, pits underprivileged groups against each other. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of CLDN18.2 in primary tumors and lymph node (LN) metastases of Japanese patients with GC. The two doctors aim to use this principle to combat cancer. Since then the couple have been carrying out research on mRNA technology. When Özlem Türeci, co-founder of BioNTech, first heard about the novel coronavirus, she knew her company would have to work on a vaccine to fight it. Despite the daily racism, institutional xenophobia, and a rightist press of substantial proportions, the path of Ugur Sahin marks a human and an entrepreneurial success that cannot be seen without German racism. Still, it is not irrelevant which researchers are responsible for the new vaccine. The work done by these three women and men is making an important contribution to our future. Women in Crisis: Will the Violence Ever Stop? Ganymed Pharmaceuticals was sold to the Japanese Astellas company in 2016. History Foundation (2008–2013) BioNTech was founded in 2008 based on research by Uğur Şahin, Özlem Türeci, and Christoph Huber, [citation needed] with a seed investment of €150 million. Dr. Özlem Türeci, chief medical officer and … Özlem Türeci ist die Tochter einer Familie, die von Istanbul nach Deutschland ausgewanderte. In some ways, being proud of something someone else has done is at least strange. But Germany also has many low-income people with a history of migration. Sahin and Türeci success are by no means self-evident. How AFSCME and ACLU Gutted New Mexico’s Proposed Ban on Chemical Weapons, Attack Dogs, Rubber Bullets, Nuclear Fuel Buried 108 Feet From the Sea, The Geopolitics of Vaccine Nationalism: Perspectives from Australia, Transnational and Transformative Movements: BLM, Kashmir, and Prison Reform in Oklahoma, No, the Rich Aren’t Paying Their Fare Share, A People’s History of the Civil Rights Movement, Love & Rage: The Eros Effect and Spontaneous Combustion, WTO Fails to Act on COVID Patent Waiver Again, Letters From Minsk: Travellers in the Third Reich, How Endless Wars and Interventions Helped Create the Assault on the Capitol, Art & Politics in San Francisco, 2021: Portraits of a City in Upheaval, Again. Biontech-Gründer Ugur Sahin und Özlem Türeci erhalten heute das Bundesverdienstkreuz. Dr. Özlem Türeci, Chief Medical Officer von BioNTech, vergleicht ihre Arbeit gerne mit der Vermessung von zuvor unbekanntem Territorium, wo es manchmal eben nur Schritt für Schritt vorangeht. They are anecdotes! The international press celebrated it. Instead, it is a sign that – against the odds – Sahin and Türeci have achieved the unimaginable. Want to Stop A Pandemic? However, their achievements hardly make the headlines of Germany’s corporate media and even less so in Germany’s right-wing tabloids. The two doctors aim to use this principle to combat cancer. Still, for Germany’s right-wing, it is the link between public appreciation and a migration background. While thousands of right-wing German conspiracy theorists marched on German streets protesting against Merkel’s Coronavirus measures furnished with their tinfoil hats, two Turkish-Germans were busy saving their lives. Her desire to help emerged when she discovered how patients there suffered with diseases like cancer. Özlem Türeci’s innovative strength and scientific diligence have played a decisive role in the fight against coronavirus: the 53-year-old doctor is Chief Medical Officer at Biontech, the Mainz-based company she founded in 2008 with her husband Uğur Şahin. being useful to capital. In the standard media coverage, one can see how quickly some people and Germany’s corporate media acquired a new level of simplification. 5. + Germany’s civil society is proud because it has – more or less successfully – countered the right. Ideologically, it shows that despite society’s hardening structures, they have made it. Later, she worked at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in the field of cancer immunology and, as she says now, it was then that she realised, Offsetting carbon emissions ID: ZRI-BSC-471559. Türeci wollte als Kind "Nonne werden", um zu helfen Älteren Lastrupern ist der Vater noch bekannt, der seine Tochter oft mit ins Krankenhaus genommen haben soll, wie NDR 1 … Who is Crafting Joe Biden’s Agenda…Voters or the Investor Class? From the Earth to the Moon: Biden’s China Policy Doomed from the Start. Others tweeted it as a spike against the AfD. It is in science where Sahin and Türeci first made their way. Yet, taxi drivers with a migrant background are taught just that when compared to a “high-performer” and “super-immigrant” star researchers who came up with a Coronavirus vaccine. The immigration story and the origins of both Sahin and Türeci are now presented in German media. In their eternal effort to eliminate Marx’s class, such characterisations attribute the economic success of immigration to individualistic qualities. For that, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci are turned into positive examples. Those not useful to capital are rejected. Ihr Ziel sei es damals gewesen, Menschen zu helfen. [2] BioNTech Corporation, An der Goldgrube 12, 55131 Mainz, Germany. Their Turkish background is the reason why in Germany’s right-wing tabloids and perhaps even more so in the echo-chambers of the so-called “social” media, they are, at times, framed as Germans. Accordingly, everyone is to blame if the ascent does not succeed. These form antibodies against the relevant adversary – whether a virus or a tumour. Funnily, Germans would hardly say to a white taxi driver that he is not well integrated into German society because he is “only” a taxi driver! Today’s Germany is characterised by the fact that its society depicts a level of heterogeneity that Germany’s right profoundly detests. usefulness to the industry – not the humanness of a person.