Iran proposes regional alliance to counter ‘Western scientific apartheid’
The director of Iran’s National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB) says the countries in the region should forge a scientific alliance to confront what he called “Western scientific apartheid.”
In a meeting with Vadim Petrovich, the rector of Ufa University of Science and Technology in Russia, Javad Mohammadi said, “In order to confront and overcome the scientific apartheid practices of the West against Iran, we should form a scientific alliance with the universities of friendly and neighboring countries.”
He stated that such an alliance can give the power to identify and control future threats to human health and epidemics and pandemics such as Coronavirus.
Mohammadi said NIGEB is a genetic engineering and biotechnology hub in Iran and the region that seeks to fulfill the needs of the country and the region.
Early diagnosis of cancer, basic and fundamental studies on olive, salt-resistant grain and wheat cultivation, probiotics and animal disease models with gene editing methods, making diagnostic kits for humans, livestock and poultry, and producing HP, HPV and flu vaccines are among the research activities of the institute, Mohammadi explained.
Meanwhile, Petrovich said Ufa University of Science and Technology has been active in biotechnology, medical genetics, livestock and poultry genetics, agriculture, and aerospace for a century and has close cooperation with NIGEB.
