TEHRAN (MNA) – The laureates for the 2019 Mustafa (PBUH) Prize are two prominent scientists from Turkey and three scientists from Iran, according to the event’s organizers.
Held biennially, the Mustafa Prize is a science and technology award, granted to top researchers and scientists of the Islamic world.
In the field of life and medical science and technology, the Mustafa Prize was shared between Professor Ugur Sahin from Turkey, a Professor at the Mainz University Medical Center of Germany, and Dr. Ali Khadem Hosseini from Iran.
Professor Sahin received the award for his seminal work on individualized cancer immunotherapies, in particular for the development and clinical testing of mRNA-based vaccines that are tailored to each patient's mutation profile.
Three other scientists shared the prize in the newly added category "Mustafa prize laureates from Islamic countries”, including Profs. Umran Inan (Turkey), a scientist at Koç University and Stanford University; Dr. Hossein Baharvand (Iran), a professor at Royan Institute, and Dr. Mohammad Abdolvahed (Iran), a faculty member at the University of Tehran.
According to the head of Mustafa Prize scientific committee, Hassan Zohour, the call for the 2019 Mustafa Prize was sent to 202 authentic academic centers and 512 scientists in 52 countries.
A total of 1649 works were assessed by the jury and 29 works were selected from 192 works. About 500 juries from 200 universities and 35 countries assessed the submitted works.

The Mustafa Prize programs will be officially initiated on November 9 and host over 100 scientists and academics from different countries.
The event will open today during a ceremony at the Alzahra University.
Meanwhile, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Sharif University of Technology, Alzahra University, Imam Sadiq University and Iran Broadcasting University (IBU), will host the 6th Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP) meetings on November 10.
Laureates of the Mustafa Prize receive the Mustafa Medal, a Diploma and $500,000 financed through the endowments made to the prize.