The Fogarty International Center coordinated a week of productive meetings for Egyptian biotechnologists recently, coinciding with BIO '96, the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. The NIH workshop was sponsored under a U.S.-Egypt science and technology agreement signed last year by Vice President Al Gore and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
Biotechnology is a natural area for cooperation between Egypt and Israel.
Both countries contain large areas of desert and suffer from similar agricultural pests and health problems, and stand to gain from successful partnerships and shared expertise. Biotechnology is also a priority for U.S. foreign policy cooperation with Egypt. Unique resources in Egypt, including desert plants and animals, and organisms in the Nile, Red Sea, isolated oases or hot springs, all are potential sources of new pharmaceuticals and industrial enzymes. Egypt may also be an ideal proving ground for organisms that remove pollution from soil and water. Biotechnology could lead to hardier crops that are able to withstand the extremes of a desert climate and fight parasites with fewer pesticides, and may also lead to improved vaccines and diagnostics to combat human disease.