A Harvard medical professor is now a billionaire after his early stake in Moderna soared 17,000%

• Timothy Springer, a medical professor at Harvard University, saw his net worth pass the $1 billion threshold this week as his early stake in biotech firm Moderna soared, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
• The professor invested $5 million in the company early on, and the stake's value has since swelled to more than $800 million.
• Moderna shares have more than doubled in the year-to-date as its experimental vaccine to combat coronavirus moved to human trials and received more than $400 million in funding from the US government.
• Watch Moderna trade live here.

Harvard University medical professor Timothy Springer is now worth more than $1 billion after his early stake in biotech firm Moderna skyrocketed through 2020, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

The company is among the few to advance to human trials for treating the coronavirus pandemic and related COVID-19 disease. Springer invested $5 million in Moderna before it went public in 2018, and the firm's success has since seen his stake's value balloon to more than $800 million, according to Bloomberg.

A small group of scientists, executives, and investors minted extraordinary gains in the biotech sector as the coronavirus outbreak escalated to a severe pandemic. Those with stakes in Moderna saw their net worth surge the most, followed by those invested in Novavax and Gilead.

Read more: Tim Bratz went from flipping $14,000 houses to a 3,472-unit portfolio worth $275 million. Here's the 'amazing' investment strategy he employs to build his long-term wealth.

Moderna shares traded at $50.39 per share as of 11:20 a.m. ET Thursday, up about 162% year-to-date. Tuesday's

The biotech company recently received more than $400 million in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop its coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273.

The windfall isn't Springer's first. The professor made roughly $100 million in 1999 when his first business was acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

Now read more markets coverage from Markets Insider and Business Insider:

US stocks climb as traders weigh unemployment filings and an oil-market rebound

JPMorgan reveals 3 reasons why the oil crash won't create systemic risk for markets

Layoffs, dividend cuts, and budget reductions: We're tracking how 18 oil giants from Equinor to Exxon are responding to the historic oil price meltdown