Khalifa University to present talk on how genomic research can revolutionize debates on health, longevity and society

Press release

Published March 11th, 2012 - 10:42 GMT

Al Bawaba

Khalifa University announced today that its next speaker in its Distinguished Speaker Series will be Richard Resnick, CEO of GenomeQuest. His lecture entitled “Wake up to the Genomic Revolution,” will take place in Abu Dhabi on March 12th, 2012, in collaboration with the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR).

The lecture will address how the revolution in genomic research is driving remarkable advances in biology, healthcare, food production, and our basic understanding of what it means to be human. It also represents a force for significant societal change, promising to cure cancer and increase lifespan.

Commenting on the lecture, Dr Mohammed Al-Mualla, Senior Vice President for Research & Development at Khalifa University said: “Technological change has a direct impact on every aspect of our lives. Richard Resnick’s lecture will explore a revolutionary advance in biological research, whose impact on longevity and wealth will generate profound societal debates over ethics and human values.”

This lecture will attract healthcare professionals, medical practitioners, biologists, food production professionals, biomedical engineering students and faculty, media and the community at large. The lecture will be followed by lively interaction with the speaker.

Richard Resnick is CEO of GenomeQuest, a company that builds software to support genomic medicine (research and individualized treatments that take advantage of inexpensive and accessible genome processing). He was previously CEO of Mosaic Bioinformatics. Before becoming a bio-entrepreneur, he was a member of the Human Genome Project at MIT.

Background Information

Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research

The newly-established Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KU) combines the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MI), the Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR) and the Petroleum Institute (PI) into one world-class, research-intensive institution, seamlessly integrating research and education to produce world leaders and critical thinkers in applied science and engineering. Khalifa University endeavors to be a leader among research intensive universities of the 21st century, while catalyzing the growth of Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s rapidly developing knowledge economy.