Dinarvand: STEP 7 to seek ways for Coronavirus treatment

18 May. 2020
 

Rassoul Dinarvand, the chair of the 7th meeting of STEP and the head of Nanotechnology Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, stated that the Mustafa Prize laureates of different rounds would also attend STEP 7; some of whom have done great jobs fighting Coronavirus.

“Professor Jackie Ying is one of the Mustafa Prize laureates who will attend this meeting. She has conducted activities in detecting the Coronavirus. Previously in other STEP meetings, she had also talked about Zika virus, which was a serious problem at that time. Also, other scientists from Islamic countries and healthcare managers will join this meeting with regard to their achievements,” Dinarvand added.

World looking forward to Ugur Sahin’s achievement

“Scientists are also pursuing activities in other Islamic countries, but what the whole world is looking forward to is the achievement of the 2019 Mustafa Prize laureate, Ugur Sahin. He has made great advances in developing a vaccine for Covid-19 and obtained authorization for clinical trial on human beings last week. Ugur Sahin’s research focuses primarily on developing cancer vaccines, which was welcomed by the MSTF and brought him the 2019 Mustafa Prize last year. He is currently using the same technology to fight the Coronavirus. The Mustafa Prize laureates along with scholars of the Islamic world, especially those cooperating with the MSTF, have so far done well in combating Covid-19,” Dinarvand said.

The chair of the STEP 7 said: “STEP commenced work as a side-program of the Mustafa Prize but since it was greatly welcomed by the scientists, the MSTF decided to introduce it as an independent program. Three STEP meetings were held concurrent with the Mustafa Prize award ceremony. Since the award ceremony is biennial and STEP is annual, we had three other meetings which were held in Malaysia, Oman, and Pakistan.”

Muslim world scientists perform well in dealing with Covid-19

Dinarvand further said: “STEP 7 is going to be held virtually due to the current situation of the societies and will focus on scientific collaborations addressing the challenges of responding to coronavirus outbreak. So far, scientists of the Islamic countries have made good efforts to control and diagnose this disease. We pursue programs to minimize casualties; other countries also had special plans to manage the disease. There are, of course, similarities among countries’ approaches in controlling the disease such as treatment methods, hospital stays, measures to reduce mortality, diagnostic and antibody test kits, new drug methods, and vaccines.”

STEP to be held among Muslim world scientists on a particular area

“Scientific platforms are held around the world pursuing particular aims. Not an exception, STEP is also a scientific platform, which is held among Muslim world scientists on one particular area of expertise where participants would become acquainted with the achievements of others– this distinguishes STEP from other scientific meetings. The fastest way to get familiar with the achievements is to hold scientific meetings,” he said.

Emphasizing that scientific meetings aim to get people familiar with achievements which have not yet been published as scientific papers, the chair of STEP 7 said: “this strengthens and enhances other scientists’ activities and helps them meet their scientific needs.”

He further said that network creation was among other STEP aims, because scientific progress depends largely on scientific cooperation. “Compared to the past, we do need teamwork today. Such activities go beyond one single country, and different scientists must work together to come up with better results,” he added.

“This disease knows no borders and has spread over all countries; Islamic and non-Islamic. The only difference among these countries is the outbreak,” Dinarvand stressed. “Islamic countries, with the infrastructure of science and technology, have made great efforts, some of which are of global value and the world looks forward to their achievements. Some achievements are, however, of national and regional value,” he continued.

News Source: MSTF Media