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The married couple behind the new coronavirus vaccine are so dedicated to medical research that they are claimed to have spent their wedding day in the lab.
Ugur Sahin, 55, and his wife Oezlem Tuereci, 53, have been heralded a "dream team" after their company BioNTech helped develop the groundbreaking vaccine with pharmaceutical outfit Pfizer.
On Monday both companies revealed their vaccine is 90% effective in protecting against coronavirus.
The husband and wife team, whose parents both migrated to Germany, dedicated their lives to medical science with Dr Tuereci once telling an interviewer they even made time for lab work on the day they got married.
The oncology professors co-founded BioNTech in 2008 after setting up their previous firm Ganymed Pharmaceuticals which sold for Sh153 billion (£1.06 billion) in 2016.
Together they looked into the immune system as a potential ally in the fight against cancer by investigating the unique genetic makeup of each tumour.
Through BioNTech they hope to develop more cancer immunotherapy tools.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested Sh6 billion (£41.8 million) in BioNTec, which also works on HIV and tuberculosis programmes.
According to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Dr Sahin and Dr Tureci are now among the 100 most richest people in Germany.
Despite their wealth, colleagues say Dr Sahin is a calm and measured man who is more interested in reading scientific journals than checking how much the company is worth.
Matthias Kromayer, a board member of venture capital firm MIG AG, whose funds have backed BioNTech, said Dr Sahin would enter business meetings wearing jeans and carrying his signature bicycle helmet and backpack with him.
He added: "Despite his achievements, he never changed from being incredibly humble and personable."
Matthias Theobald, a fellow oncology professor at Mainz university who has worked with Dr Sahin for 20 years, said: "He is a very modest person. Appearances mean little to him."
The new vaccine has sparked hopes of a return to normal by the spring, after months of misery in a seemingly endless battle against Covid-19, that has so far resulted in 1,270,080 globally.
Global markets surged yesterday as the news will spark a manufacturing blitz with Pfizer’s value soaring by Sh3 trillion (£21 billion) at one point.
Vaccines normally take at least five years to develop.
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