Three Turkish scientists received the "Special Award for the Fight Against the COVID-19 Global Pandemic" on Monday, which is marked as Medicine Day in the country.
The Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), a leading scientific body, handed out the awards to two professors and an associate professor who are hailed for their accomplishments concerning treatment and diagnosis of the coronavirus. At a ceremony in the capital Ankara, the awards were delivered to professor Aykut Özdarendeli, associate professor Urartu Özgür Şafak Şeker and professor Tanıl Kocagöz.
Özdarendeli was awarded for his work on Turkovac, Turkey’s first vaccine against the coronavirus and the first locally-made jab in decades. The professor heads a team at Erciyes University of Turkey for development of the vaccine, which recently received emergency use approval and became the third vaccine available in the country. Özdarendeli, who was also awarded by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a separate Medicine Day event, said at the ceremony that Turkey had ended mass production of vaccines in 1997 and their work began when the first coronavirus case was reported in Turkey back in 2020. He hailed the work of "a great number of people" in the development of the vaccine. "We are talking about a vaccine that received an emergency approval, under pandemic conditions and over a period of about 20 months, a vaccine whose production has reached about 1 million doses monthly and has been delivered to 81 provinces. This is a miraculous process," he said.
Associate professor Şeker won the award for his work on the development of RNA key systems for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Şeker said the biotechnology he used in the diagnosis system was a matter of national security, "something better understood during the pandemic." Şeker said Turkey had human potential that could develop innovative ideas in research and development in biotechnology. "We can utilize this potential by creating an ecosystem as is the case in software development," he said.
Professor Kocagöz was recognized for his work on COVID-19 tests through mouthwash. In a video message to the event, Kocagöz said using nasal and oral swabs in the coronavirus test had their challenges but his project facilitated the work. "You can test anyone, even children at a very young age. You only need 20 milliliters (0.68 ounces) of drinking water that is spat out by the person being tested," he said about his project. Kocagöz highlighted that it provided a more "sensitive" way to diagnose the infection and planned to use it for other diseases as well in the future.
