Prof. Dr. Uğur Şahin and Dr. Özlem Türeci, founders of BioNTech, issued a statement to the German newspaper Bild. Prof. Dr. Şahin stated that aging is also a biological condition and that it was seen decades ago that skin cells can be reprogrammed with certain factors, and they can be rejuvenated.
Explaining that these factors can also be leaked into cells via mRNA, Prof. Dr. Şahin said, “You can not suddenly turn old people into young people like in a science fiction movie. However, maybe you can completely or partially reverse the aging process of a damaged heart or other damaged or old organs. We firmly believe that this will be possible one day.”
Asked about how long Covid-19 will determine life and headlines, Prof. Dr. Şahin noted that if the virus does not change unexpectedly and the vaccine rate is increased in the coming weeks, there is a high chance of spending the autumn and winter months well.
Dr. Türeci said that the high-speed release of the vaccine developed by the mRNA method was due to the fact that the relevant authorities worked together with a clear understanding of the urgency.
Türeci added that they want this speed and necessary additional resources to be transferred to other therapies, and said, “We also have a high urgency in cancer diseases.”
Emphasizing that the prerequisite for new achievements is a precise understanding of the biology of a disease, Türeci said, “Then, like engineers, we have to think about what specific tools we need to repair the relevant disease mechanisms. Next, we will take the appropriate tools for the particular disease from the toolbox in mRNA technology, which is a very useful toolbox. We can’t yet predict what’s possible with it.”
Türeci, who also shared information about the Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, explained that the dose for this age group is 10 micrograms, which corresponds to one third of the dose in adults.
Türeci shared the information that the data for younger children will be ready by the end of the year.
