Özlem Türeci was born in Siegen in 1967 and studied medicine at Saarland University, where she earned her doctorate in 1992. She completed her habilitation at Mainz in 2002. As a child she was inspired by the nuns who worked at the Catholic hospital where her father was a surgeon.
In 2001 she and Uğur Şahin founded Ganymed Pharmaceuticals. She was chief scientific officer until 2008 and CEO from 2008 to 2016. Astellas bought Ganymed in 2016 for $1.4 billion. She married Şahin in 2002.
In 2008 the two founded BioNTech in Mainz with Christoph Huber. Türeci has been Chief Medical Officer since 2018 and leads clinical research and development. In January 2020 the company began Project Lightspeed, and in November 2020 its vaccine showed 95% efficacy.
BioNTech went public on Nasdaq in October 2019. In March 2026 Türeci and Şahin announced they will leave by the end of 2026. In May 2026 the company closed several sites and shifted its focus to oncology.