professor ahmad

Professor Howard Yuan-Hao Chang

Howard Yuan-Hao Chang received his undergraduate A.B. degree at Harvard College 1994, Ph.D. in Biology from MIT 1998, and M.D. from Harvard Medical School 2000. He completed Dermatology residency and postdoctoral training at Stanford University. Since joining the Stanford faculty in 2004, he earned tenure in 2008 and ascended to the rank of Professor in the Depts. of Dermatology and Genetics. Currently, Prof. Chang is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and Director of the Center for Personal Dynamic Regulomes at Stanford University, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Prof. Chang’s research has revealed the hidden information and logic of the noncoding genome, which comprise 98% of human DNA. RNA and DNA switches. He discovered a new class of genes, termed long noncoding RNAs, can control gene activity throughout the genome, illuminating a new layer of biological regulation. He invented ATAC-seq and multiple new methods for identifying DNA regulatory elements genome-wide and in single cells. These RNA and DNA switches decide when and where genes turn on and off, and have revealed mechanisms and targets in a plethora of human diseases, most notably in cancer, immunity, and development. His recent studies of extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in cancer showed that ecDNAs are prevalent, arise early in cancer, and represent profound epigenetic dysregulation that leads to tumor heterogeneity, oncogene overexpression, and drug resistance. The long term goal of his research is to decipher the regulatory information in the genome to benefit human health.

Prof. Chang is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and American Academy for the Arts and Sciences. Prof. Chang’s honors include the NAS Award for Molecular Biology, Outstanding Investigator Award of the National Cancer Institute, Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, Judson Daland Prize of the American Philosophical Society, and the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise. His work was honored by the journal Cell as a Landmark paper over the last 40 years and by Science as “Insight of the decade”.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Prof. Jerry

Professor Jerry Roy Mendell

Jerry R. Mendell, MD, is Emeritus Professor at Nationwide Children’s Hospital where he held the Dwight E. Peters and Juanita R. Curran Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine and recently received the ASGCT Translational Medicine Award that was named in his honor and has been given yearly to accomplished scientists.

He did Neurology residency at Columbia University’s New York Neurological Institute. His post-doctoral fellowship at the Medical Neurology Branch of NIH began his career in neuromuscular disease. He has published >400 articles with a focus on neuromuscular disease and authored books on Skeletal Muscle Disease, Peripheral Nerve Disorders, and Gene Therapy.

Early work in DMD described a vascular pathway responsible for muscle damage in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) now confirmed by the link to nNOS binding sites of muscle. The first breakthrough in treatment was described in 1989, as efficacy of corticosteroids in DMD (Mendell JR, et al. N Engl J Med 320:1592-1597, 1989). Prednisone or one its corticosteroid variants now standard of care for DMD. Since then, research has moved toward molecular-based strategies. In 1999 Dr. Mendell performed the first in-human clinical trial using AAV for gene transfer to skeletal muscle. In March 2007, Dr. Mendell’s gene therapy in limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2D, demonstrated sustained gene expression for more than 6 months, an important milestone for the field (Mendell JR Ann Neurol 2009;66:290-297). In a similar gene therapy approach for DMD, he demonstrated that expressing the transgene into deleted domain resulted in rejection of the gene product because of transgene immunity (Mendell JR et al N Engl J Med;363:1429-37).

He was instrumental in establishing the international incidence of DMD at birth at 1:5000 (Mendell JR, et al Ann Neurol 2012;71:304-313). Clinical Trials led by Dr. Mendell in exon skipping were noteworthy as the first therapeutic agent to show increased dystrophin expression following long-term exon skipping outcomes demonstrating slowing of disease progression (Mendell al. Ann Neurol 2013; 74:637-47; Ann Neurol 2016; 79:257-271). Eteplirsen (Exondys 51) is approved by the FDA for commercial use.

He was the principal investigator for SMA gene therapy, the first systemically delivered gene showing achieving safety and efficacy (Mendell JR, et al N Engl J Med Nov 2017). This was a major milestone saving the lives of infants with gene delivery by intravenous administration. This work received Science Magazine 2017 Breakthrough of the Year Award.  SMA gene therapy has now been approved by the FDA for clinical therapy as Onasemnogene Abeparvovec (Zolgensma®, Novartis, Inc). Based on SMA gene therapy, newborn screening is now established in 49 states throughout US.

Currently Dr. Mendell is actively engaged in systemic delivery of micro-dystrophin-DMD gene therapy. He is the Principal Investigator and as a result gene therapy has been approved by FDA treatment of DMD patients 4-5 years old (Elevidys®, Sarepta, Inc.). Studies are underway to obtain gene therapy treatment for all DMD patients.

Dr. Mendell now serves as a Senior Advisor for Sarepta Therapeutics.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Prof. Wael

Professor Wael B. Hallaq

He graduated from the University of Haifa in 1978, then earned a masters degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1979. Hallaq joined McGill University as an assistant professor of Islamic law in 1985, after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1983. He became a full professor in 1994, and was named a James McGill Professor in Islamic law in 2005. In 2009, he moved to New York, to become the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he has been teaching ethics, law, and political thought since 2009. Hallaq is considered a world leading scholar in the field of Islamic studies, and has been described as a foremost authority on the Sharia. His research and writings have shaped the Western academic education on Islamic law, and have extended over many periods and subjects, ranging from the formative period of Islam to modern history. He lectured in universities across the world, from Japan, Singapore and Indonesia, to the Middle East, Europe and North America. He has published over eighty articles and numerous books on topics including law, legal theory, philosophy, ethics, political theory, and logic. In 2009, he was listed among the 500 most influential scholars in the studies of Islamic.

Hallaq gained prominence for his doctoral work challenging the notion of the so-called “the closing of the gate of ijtihad,” a narrative that was for long accepted in the field as paradigmatic. His major works include Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge, and Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha, Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, Shari`a: Theory, Practice, Transformations, and Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Usul al-Fiqh. Professor Hallaq’s work is widely debated and translated, with several books and dissertations, and numerous articles, devoted to the study and analysis of his writings. His life and work have been featured in many interviews, symposia, talk shows, and documentaries by major media outlets.

In 2015, his Impossible State (2013) won Columbia’s distinguished Book Award for the two years prior, and since it appeared in Arabic in 2014, it has commanded much attention in academic circles and mass media in the Muslim world. In 2020, he won the Nautilus Book Award for Reforming Modernity, and in 2021, he was awarded the TÜBA Prize, given by the Turkish Academy of Science in recognition of innovative and path-breaking scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Later in the same year, he was elected an Honorary Member of this Academy. Dozens of his major articles and all his books have now been rendered into Arabic and Turkish, and many are translated into several other languages including Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Urdu, Hebrew, Italian, German, French, and most recently Albanian, Russian, and Bengali.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Japan Muslim Association

Japan Muslim Association

The Japan Muslim Association was established in 1952. Every two years, directors are elected from among the Association’s members, and they manage the Association voluntarily. There are currently 15 male and female directors, each responsible for a department of administration. The current president of the Association is Yahaya Endo (11th president).

The Association organizes a number of activities and events to serve Islam and Muslims in Japan and abroad. The Association began its activity in 1955, organizing Hajj campaigns for Japanese Muslims. In 1957, Muslim students began to be dispatched on scholarships for Islamic studies abroad. The first Islamic cemetery was established in Japan in 1966 and was registered in the name of the Association. In 1968, the Association was registered with the Japanese government as a religious organization.

The Association was interested in the Arabic language, and began offering courses to teach Arabic to the Japanese in 1969. The Association’s officials had the opportunity to meet the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia – May Allah rest his soul in peace- during his visit to Japan in 1971. In 1972, the Association published the first translation of the holy Quran in Japanese, with the support of the Muslim World League. The translation was undertaken by Professor Omar Meta, the second president of the Association.

The Association publishes a quarterly magazine called “Islam,” whose publication began in 1974. So far, 218 issues of the magazine have been published. When the Arab Islamic Institute was opened in Tokyo by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1984, the Association cooperated with the institute in holding conferences and organizing joint activities. In 1984, the Association acceded to the membership of RISEAP (Regional Islamic Da’wa Council for Southeast Asia and the Pacific) that is based in Malaysia. In 2002, the Association also joined the Japanese Committee of the World Conference of Religious Men for Peace. In 1984, the Association began establishing the Islamic Camp in cooperation with the International Symposium for Islamic Youth in Riyadh.

Having acquired greater experience and having developed markedly, the Association’s services have expanded to a greater level in favor of Muslims in Japan and abroad. It began in 2000 to issue halal certification to Japanese companies. In 2012, it supported those affected by the major earthquake that occurred in eastern Japan. The Association contributed to the interfaith dialogue conference held by the Muslim World League in Tokyo in 2015. In 2016, the Center for Islamic Cultural Exchange in Japan was opened in Tokyo. It is a multi-purpose center that includes a prayer hall, offices, classrooms, and a library.

During his visit to Japan in 2017, the Association met with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz -May Allah preserve him. The Association participated in the “Makkah Document Conference,” which was held by the Muslim World League in Makkah Al-Mukarramah  in 2019. One of the important books to which the Association contributed was the book titled “A Brief Interpretation of the Holy Quran,” which was translated into Japanese and published by the Tafsir Center for Quranic Studies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Mr. El-Sammak(1)

Mr. Mohammad El-Sammak

Mr. Mohammad El-Sammak was born in 1939 in Beirut, Lebanon. He studied in the schools of Al-Maqasid Islamic Society and continued his graduate studies at the American University of Beirut and then at the Lebanese American University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in the humanities. He began his work as a journalist during which tenure he wrote about Islamic thought, authored many books, and devoted himself to developing studies on this subject, which were published in a collection of books. Besides, he gave many lectures and seminars across national, Arab, and international platforms.

Mr. El-Sammak held several positions. He worked as an advisor to the late Lebanese President Rafik Hariri. He also held the position of advisor to the Mufti of the Lebanese Republic. His work in interfaith dialogue (Islam and Christianity) earned him membership on the Board of Directors of The King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID). He was equally a member of several bodies and institutions, namely member of the Supreme Council of the Muslim World League in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Member of the Council of Al-Bayt Foundation (Amman – Jordan), member of the Board of Trustees of Al-Maqasid Islamic Society (Beirut), member of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies (Abu Dhabi).

Mr. El-Sammak served as the Secretary General of dialogue-based institutions, including the National Islamic-Christian Dialogue Committee (Lebanon), the Arab Committee for Islamic-Christian Dialogue, and Religion for Peace (New York).

He participated as a representative of the Muslims of Lebanon in the Synod held in the Vatican under the chairmanship of Pope John Paul II 1993. He also participated in the Synod Conference on the Middle East, which was held under the chairmanship of Pope Benedict XVI 2010. He was the only Muslim participating in that synod.

His most prominent books comprise “The Arab Decision in the Lebanese Crisis,” “Prophecy and Politics,” “Essays on Coexistence,” “The Middle East Crisis, Whereto?”, “Reflections on Man, Religion, and Politics,” “The Position of Islam in the Clash of Civilizations,” “The Position of Islam in the Dialogue of Civilizations,” “Introduction to the Islamic-Christian Dialogue,” “Religion in the American Decision-making,” “Al-Quds (Jerusalem) before it is too Late,” “Muslims and Contemporary Challenges,” “When the Muslims Occupied the Alps “, “Essays on the Dialogue of Civilizations”, “The Vatican and Relations with Islam”, “Islam and Eastern Christians”.

Mr. El-Sammak was awarded medals of appreciation from Italy, the Vatican, and Jordan, as well as many American and European dialogical institutions.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.