Biotechnology Research and Development in Academia : providing the foundation for Egypt ' s Biotechnology spectrum of colors . Sixteenth Annual American University in Cairo Research Conference , American University in Cairo , Cairo , Egypt

Biotechnology research and development in Egypt was addressed in the 2009 annual American University in Cairo (AUC) research conference held at the AUC new campus in Cairo, Egypt, that took place on April 5th 2009. The aim of the event was to present examples of ongoing biotechnology research activities in Egypt with focus on agricultural and biomedical biotechnology and to highlight the expansion of academic biotechnology research to industry. Overview Biotechnology is a cutting edge interdisciplinary field combining technologies and expertise of personnel in different fields to contribute extensively to pharmaceutics, diagnostics, medicine, agriculture, and the environment. The biotechnology field literally comes in a spectrum of colors red, white/grey [1], green and blue [2]. The conference has discussed several research endeavors in Egypt contributing to the biotechnology field and how such research has direct industrial applications or would direct the expansion of the biotechnology field. This was addressed by discussing examples of biotechnology research and development in academia; representative participants from (1) the Center of Excellence for Advanced Sciences (CEAS), Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Division (GEBRD), National Research Center (NRC), in Cairo, Egypt, (2) Sinai University, in North Sinai, El Arish, El Masaid, Egypt, (3) Naval Medical Research Unit-3, Abbasia, Egypt and the (4) YJScience and Technology Research Center, (5) the Biology Department, and the Biotechnology Graduate Program at the American University in Cairo. Participants gave a general overview of ongoing research activities that would contribute extensively to the biotechnology industry, additionally a few examples on ongoing research and development in biotechnology industries were discussed. Worldwide biotechnology hotbed communities have contributed to the fact that biotechnology is one of the most renowned applied sciences of the 21st century. In North America several biotechnology hotbeds exist from the southern Biotech Bay and Biotech Beach to the eastern coast Genetown and the northern BioCanada; which not only encompass the biotechnology industry but also the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. The EU from 2009 American University in Cairo Research Conference Cairo, Egypt. 5 April 2009 Published: 1 July 2009 BMC Proceedings 2009, 3(Suppl 3):I1 Egypt's Biotechnology Research and Development in Academia: providing the foundation for the biotechnology spectrum of colors Meeting abstracts – A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available here. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1753-6561-3-S3-info.pdf This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1753-6561/3/S3/I1 © 2009 Siam; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.