Abu Dhabi, 24th April 2012 (WAM) -- His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, attended yesterday a lecture at his cultural Majlison new outlook of scientific research : computer sciences and biology delivered by Dr. J. Craig Venter, Founder and President of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a California-based not-for-profit, research organization dedicated to human, microbial, plant, synthetic and environmental genomic research.
Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Public Works, Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, and a number of Sheikhs, ministers, researchers and experts were present at the scientificevent. Dr. Venter said the UAE could play a critical role in the genome map, stressing that what matters is a dedicated work for future in continued education and fundamentals of scientific research. He noted that the UAE, blessed with abundance of sunshine, desert, sea water and carbon dioxide, could draw its own genome map which will be very useful in producing food in a new innovative method, recycling water and waste and generating electricity. In his view, the whole matter is deeply linked with time, education and well-trainedprofessionals. The lecturer said that his research institute pursued a number of exciting avenues in the burgeoning field of genomics, and use new computing and computational tools, as well as new DNA sequencing technology, to sequence the first free living organism in 1995. With this advance, the floodgates of genomics were opened.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2012.
