The first recipients of the Outstanding Service to Humanity Award, presented by the Vehbi Koç Foundation, are the founders of BioNTech: Prof. Dr. Özlem Türeci and Prof. Dr. Uğur Şahin. So, we set out to make a film telling their story — and found ourselves in Mainz, Germany, right there in the laboratory where they developed the COVID-19 vaccine.
Working on a film with Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin — who quietly entered all our lives but left a profound impact — is unlike anything else. Before anything else, beyond the film equipment, you approach them with an immense sense of gratitude. As you get to know them and witness their humility, that gratitude gradually turns into deep admiration.
The story of how these two renowned scientists met goes back many years. Both children of Turkish families living in Germany, they met in an oncology lab — and immediately formed a bond. But their connection wasn't just emotional; it was rooted in a shared goal: finding better treatment options for people.
Their work focused on mRNA technology, still in its infancy at the time, primarily aimed at treating cancer. To continue on the path they believed in and secure the necessary resources, they came to a pivotal decision. As Özlem Türeci describes it, they founded a biotechnology company "out of desperation." They had to bring together seemingly incompatible elements: science, innovation, and entrepreneurship. That’s how BioNTech was born.
Just as BioNTech’s mRNA-based cancer research was beginning to yield promising results, the world was introduced to the COVID-19 virus. Uğur Şahin was one of the first to realize that this emerging virus would escalate into a pandemic. Without hesitation, he and his team rolled up their sleeves to develop a treatment using the technology they had pioneered. The rest is history.
At the end of this extraordinary journey, Prof. Dr. Özlem Türeci and Prof. Dr. Uğur Şahin became the first recipients of the Vehbi Koç Foundation’s Outstanding Service to Humanity Award. At the ceremony held at Koç University on the evening of June 25, 2022, they accepted the award and asked that the $200,000 prize be used to support scientific research and students in need.
At one point in our film, Uğur Şahin refers to a Turkish saying: “A cup of coffee is remembered for forty years,” reflecting the value Turks place on gratitude. It makes you stop and think: If a single cup of coffee is remembered for forty years, how long will we remember a vaccine that saved millions of lives?
