Mustafa Diken

Mustafa Diken leads cancer immunology research at BioNTech, elucidating the mechanisms by which mRNA vaccines activate both innate and adaptive immune responses against tumor antigens. His research demonstrated that unmodified mRNA possesses intrinsic adjuvant activity through TLR7 stimulation, while the balance between immunostimulation and translational efficiency can be tuned through nucleoside modifications. He has advanced the understanding of how mRNA vaccines are processed by dendritic cells and how this processing influences the quality and breadth of anti-tumor T cell responses.