As part of its remarkable efforts to fight the COVID19 pandemic, the Saudi Ministry of Health has launched an urgent a COVID19 research competition in the 17th of March 2020, to cover areas related to awareness, readiness, prevention and treatment of the emerging virus.
The Ministry invited medical researches across the Kingdom to submit proposals in eight COVID19 related categories which are: virulence and source of infection, clinical management, prevention measures, long-term goals, ethical and social considerations, diagnosis and pathological changes and laboratory tests, epidemiology, and treatments & economic impact on the health system.
Dr. Khaled Alkattan, Dean of College of Medicine and Alfaisal University’s VP for Finance submitted a proposal entitled “Screening immune responses against COVID-19 as a rapid diagnostic measure and a pathway to a potential curetitle” in the category of fast diagnosis, and in the same category, Dr. Mohammed Zourob, Professor of Chemistry at Alfaisal University College of Science submitted a proposal entitled ”Novel Low-Cost and Rapid biosensor for the detection of COVID-19.
An official press release was made on the 13th of April 2020 to announce a 33 “Researches Heroes” who were awarded this Urgent COVID19 Research Grant.
