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Iain Gillespie
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Genomic sciences have emerged in the last decade as a promising area with significant impact in health, the environment, industry, and other domains of modern life. This has contributed to the development of new interdisciplinary research areas, such as bioinformatics, synthetic biology, nanobiology, computational biology, biomaterials, and systems biology, among others. As with all transformative technologies, expansive economic opportunities will arise from their application. These new fields share convergence, a comparable and underlying research model which brings together engineering and the physical and life sciences, providing a new paradigm that can yield critical advances in a broad array of sectors. We believe that these emerging disciplines, where genomics plays a major role, will have an important impact in the world‘s future. That role is even more important today as countries emerge from the recent economic crisis, and seek to build sustainable economies geared toward meeting global challenges in providing innovative healthcare, a cleaner environment and an abundant food supply for a growing population. This summit will examine how the advancement of genomic-related technologies can contribute to a sustainable economic development in the context of the bio-economy, and will point out some challenges that need to be addressed to achieve such goals. The nature of these new technologies is such that all nations, in the developed and the developing world, may benefit from this scientific trend. |
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Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum |
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Human Genome Organisation |
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Centre for Arab Genomic Studies |