‘Ideas Brought to Life’ Program Announces Its Winners

Winners of the 'Life-Changing Ideas' Program Announced Gilead, a science company developing innovative treatments with the mission of developing the best solutions for life-threatening diseases, announced the winners of this year's 'Life-Changing Ideas' program at an awards ceremony held on 19 October 2022. Prof. Dr. Aykut Özdarendeli, who attended the awards ceremony to inspire young scientists, shared the story of developing a domestic Covid-19 vaccine. Gilead, through its Life-Changing Ideas program launched in 2013 with the slogan "Every good idea we support improves lives," supports scientific and social responsibility projects that will develop, discover, and disseminate best practices and new ideas in the fields of viral hepatitis, HIV, systemic fungal infections, oncology, and hematologic malignancies in Turkey. Within the scope of the Life-Changing Ideas program, held for the 9th time this year, Gilead provides support totaling TRY 700,000 to 9 projects, of which 5 are scientific and 4 are social, selected by an independent jury. To date, through this program, Gilead has provided support to a total of 73 projects amounting to approximately USD 900,000.

Gilead Medical Director Dr. Serhan Sevgi, who opened the ceremony, made the following remarks:

"Contributing to the advancement of science is one of our most important priorities in line with our objective of developing the best solutions for life-threatening diseases. While continuing our activities in this direction, we do not limit ourselves to our own research; we also support scientific and social projects worldwide. Because we know that every good idea we support will create major changes in the lives of patients and their families. This year, we received a total of 43 project applications from university students in fields such as medicine, genetics, and biomedicine, physicians, academics, and civil society organizations working in the health sector, containing innovative and highly valuable ideas in the fields of HIV, liver diseases, and oncology. We express our gratitude to all participants who research and develop to improve human life, who believe that research and development is the heart of science, and who share their valuable ideas and projects with us, and we sincerely congratulate the winning projects."

Prof. Dr. Aykut Özdarendeli, Director of Erciyes University Vaccine Application and Research Center, who developed the domestic Covid-19 vaccine with the support of the T.C Ministry of Health, made the following remarks as a guest speaker at the ceremony:

"Through 20 months of intensive effort and dedication, we succeeded in developing a solution that brings healing not only to our country but to people all over the world. This is an important development that demonstrates the power of science during an unprecedented pandemic that affected the entire world. With the light of science, a young team, our strong health infrastructure, and cooperation between the university, public, and private sectors, we developed a life-saving vaccine for humanity. I thank everyone who contributed to this process. This work has brought very important experience to the Turkish health system and this gain will undoubtedly benefit us in the future as well. I believe that all project owners awarded within the scope of the Life-Changing Ideas support program have many more stories and successes yet to be written in their careers. I congratulate you for your valuable efforts in strengthening health and improving human life through science, research, innovation, and technology, with your knowledge, experience, energy, and commitment to society. I express my gratitude to the Gilead family, which supports these efforts with the same passion and objectives."

We are working to improve health for everyone

Ryan McKeel, Senior Director of Corporate Relations (ICR) for Gilead's Intercontinental Region, stated: "As Gilead, we are working to improve health for everyone by developing the best solutions for life-threatening diseases. Our priority is to ensure that patients in Turkey have access to the innovative treatments we have developed. As we celebrate our 15th year and have started domestic production in recent months, we are making very serious contributions to Turkey through clinical research, R&D investments, donations, and project support. The Life-Changing Ideas program, which has brought very important projects to the scientific world, supports young people, physicians, academics, and NGOs who are committed to contributing to human health with passion and enthusiasm. Our goal is to advance further on our science journey and reach as many people as possible worldwide with life-saving treatment methods." At the Life-Changing Ideas awards ceremony, moderated by Hakan Çelik, the journey of projects that won in previous years coming to life was shared. Subsequently, plaques were presented to this year's winning finalists.