The American doctor who was largely responsible for discovering Hepatitis C has been chosen as the chief winner of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences.

Additionally, 15 doctors and health and non-profit foundations from the West, Arab region and beyond were winners of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences and will share a AED2.8 million prize.

Dr. Harvey J. Alter, who is best known for work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, is the chief winner and will receive the Grand Hamdan Award in Gastroenterology.

Alter is an investigator at the Transfusion Medicine Department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland, USA.

Alter also co-discovered the Australia antigen, a key to detecting the hepatitis B virus. Later, he spearheaded a project at the Clinical Center that created a storehouse of blood samples used to uncover the causes and reduce the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis. He was principal investigator on studies that identified non-A, non-B hepatitis, now called hepatitis C The winners of the award, whose latest cycle is focused on the treatment of stomach disorders, will be honoured at a ceremony on 14th December at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The patron of the award, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance and President of the Dubai Health Authority, will be in attendance.

The other award winners in the international category are: - Sanford Markowitz, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland Ohio, USA, for work on disorders of the colon - David Tuveson, Deputy Director of the Cold Spring Harbor, Laboratory Cancer Centre, USA, for work on pancreatic diseases - Dr Meritxell Huch, Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, for work on liver disorders Organisations and individuals in the humanitarian category of the award are: - Medecins Sans Frontieres, France - Emirates Airline Foundation, UAE -Dr Graham Forward, Australia Winners in the Arab World category are: - Lalla Salma Foundation for the Prevention and Treatment of Cancers, Morocco.

-Mohammad Al Faqih, Saudi Arabia Winners in the UAE category are: - Cardiac Sciences Institute, Shaikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi - Dr Hussain Abbas Mahboobi, Dubai - Dr Tayseer Ebrahim Barakat (deceased) - Dr Shawqi Mir Hashem Khouri, Dubai, UAE.

Awards for original research papers published in the Hamdan Medical Journal are: - Purification and biochemical characterisation of a second type of neutral ceramidase from camel (Camelus dromedarius) brain, by Sehamuddin Galadari, Cell signalling laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al Ain, UAE.

- Sensitisation of murine macrophages and human hepatoma cells to lipopolysaccharide-induced oxidative and stress by Aspirin’, by Haider Raza, Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, Al Ain, UAE