Winner of ‘Muslim Nobel Prize’ has made giant step in eradicating COVID-19
With the announcement of BioNTech-Pfizer’s success in developing a 90% efficacious COVID-19 vaccine, Indonesian media have vastly addressed this accomplishment by the 2019 Mustafa(Pbuh) Prize laureate.
MSTF Media reports:
The breakthrough achievement of Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech and the 2019 Mustafa Prize laureate, in developing a Coronavirus vaccine found to be 90% effective, has not only raised hopes for eradication of the current pandemic, but also attracted worldwide media attention.
Having caught the attention of the top news headlines since Monday, November 9, Sahin is now a cynosure in many news stories around the world. Amid the abundant news of Sahin’s tremendous achievement, Indonesian media have specifically addressed it, shedding light on the path he has trodden to success.
Referring to the 2019 Mustafa Prize award ceremony, Republika wrote that in November 2019 an event was held which was attended by representatives from at least 30 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). “This time it was not politicians, but scientists” from hundreds of research institutes gathered under one roof.
The Mustafa Prize, “an award that the Science Journal called the Nobel Prize for Muslims,” announced five winners in 2019 among which was Ugur Sahin— a 55-year-old Turkish scientist who has completed his academic career in Germany, wrote Kompas and Republika.
Having been selected as a Mustafa Prize laureate for his research on cancer immunotherapy, Sahin said ‘I feel proud that there is a committee that confers this kind of award on Muslim citizens,’ adding that ‘There are a billion more Muslims on the planet, yet this committee has tracked our work in Germany and is appreciating what we have done,’ highlighted Republika in its news.
According to Republika, perhaps a bigger award awaits Ugur Sahin, as the cancer vaccination method that he and his wife Özlem Türeci initiated, has recently turned out to be the basis for developing a vaccine for COVID-19—the disease that has paralyzed the world.
Elaborating at length on how this mRNA vaccine works, Kompas noted that “Sahin’s outstanding achievement in the area of mRNA technology that brought him the 2019 Mustafa Prize, is now regarded as the glimmer of hope for putting an end to COVID-19 pandemic.” In fact, he has now developed the 90%-efficacious COVID-19 vaccine based on the same work he did on the genetic material called mRNA for developing cancer vaccines.
Republika reports that the story of COVID-19 vaccine development by Sahin’s company began in January 2020. While reading a scientific article on COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan City, Sahin realized how his already-promising findings on mRNA-based cancer vaccine can be applied to the development of mRNA-based viral vaccines. Therefore, BioNTech’s research focus was immediately rerouted to developing an effective COVID-19 vaccine, in cooperation with Pfizer pharmaceutical company.
As Kompas puts it, the fruitful collaboration and the personal friendship between Ugur Sahin,Özlem Türeci, and Albert Bourla has not only become a symbol of hope for the end of the current pandemic, but also demonstrated humans’ power to collaborate together casting ethnicities, religions, races, and other constructed boundaries aside.
Ugur Sahin was awarded the 2019 Mustafa Prize in Life & Medical Science and Technology for his outstanding achievements in “Development and Clinical Testing of mRNA-based Cancer Vaccines that are Tailored to the Mutation Profile of a Cancer Patient.”
