"mRNA is the most primal information technology created by nature. It can be manufactured synthetically by a relatively simple and versatile process, and it is safe and programmable", highlighted doctor Özlem Türeci, an expert in cancer immunotherapy and a driving force behind a COVID-19 vaccine based on messenger RNA, during the ceremony in which she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Barcelona. The ceremony, which was streamed online via UBtv , was presided over by the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia. Türeci's sponsors were UB professors Antoni Trilla, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Pedro Alonso, former director of the World Health Organization's Global Malaria Programme.
The ceremony, which honoured Özlem Türeci's scientific excellence in global public health, included the presentation of the extraordinary bachelor's degree awards for the 2022 - 2023 academic year.
Özlem Türeci, born in Siegen (Germany) to a family of Turkish origin, played a key role in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. A professor of personalized medicine at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology Mainz (HI-TRON), Türeci has received the 2021 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, the 2020 International Catalonia Prize, the 2021 Medal of Honor from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (United States), and the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of the Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Each patient has a unique cancer
An expert in mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies - "we were fascinated by the immune system and its complexity" - Türeci recalled that her career "began at the patient's bedside." "Each patient has a unique cancer" she emphasized. "If we wanted to make a real impact on patients' lives, we shouldn't be not only physicians who understand patients' needs, not only immunologists with deep domain expertise, but also entrepreneurs and company founders able to create the funding structures, and environment necessary to translate science into medicines that reach patients."
The recently appointed honorary doctor recalled that, in its natural form, "mRNA is fragile, its half-life is short, the message fades and, with it, so do the antigens produced," a condition that made it necessary to "learn to modify parts of the mRNA so it would become more stable, more readable, and more productive, by orders of magnitude." "We recognized mRNA's potential," she said, "but we also knew that significant improvements were needed to make it suitable for therapeutic or preventive use".
Among other challenges, it was necessary to develop high-precision delivery technologies that protect the mRNA and bring it to the immune cells that matter the most, while taking into account each patient's individuality. "Each patient's cancer presents a different combination of mutations and abnormal molecular features. Addressing this required the convergence of technologies".
By late 2019, Türeci's team had provided individualized vaccines in clinical-study phases to hundreds of cancer patients worldwide. "Each time, it was a race against the patient's tumour, and this trained our teams to think with urgency."
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in January 2020, they were scientifically, technologically and organizationally prepared for an initiative that came to be known as Project Lightspeed. "We felt the responsibility to put our capabilities into use in addressing this global crisis," she said.
"Within 10 months, while following scientific, ethical, and regulatory standards, the first approved mRNA-based medicine emerged," she noted. "Much of what we learned now supports our cancer programmes, not only those based on mRNA technology."
