A research team from AAU wins a financial grant from Al Jalila Foundation to find a treatment for Covid-19
- Posted on:Oct 08, 2020
A scientific team from Al Ain University won the academic grant provided by Al Jalila Foundation (A Member of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives), which valued at five hundred thousand Dirhams for a period of two years.
The winning research which aims to discover new drug compounds as a potential treatment of COVID-19 via targeting the main protease enzyme (Mpro) of the virus, was led by Dr. Mohammed Ghattas, Deputy Dean of the College of Pharmacy at Al Ain University (AAU), with the participation of Dr. Noor El Deen Atatreh, AAU Chancellor, Prof. Bassam Ali and Dr. Sheikha Al-Neyadi from the United Arab Emirates University.
Dr. Atatreh, extended his thanks and appreciation to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, for his great and unlimited support for science, learners and the scholars’ community in the UAE. He also thanked Al Jalila Foundation for choosing the research presented by Al Ain University, wishing the team all success in this project, which will benefit the UAE and all of humanity.
Dr. Ghattas, expressed his thanks and appreciation to Al Jalila Foundation and the team members, and said: “We have a great responsibility to apply this financial grant to the reality and come up with chemical compounds capable of combating Covid-19 epidemic. We are very happy that Al Ain University is among the research teams at the UAE and world level that are working to find a treatment against this epidemic. "
It is worth to mention that, this initiative attracted 91 scientists from 26 educational institutions from all over the UAE to encourage the research community in the country to conduct studies in the field of pathology, disease diagnosis, epidemiology, treatment and prevention that are particularly related to Covid-19 disease.
