Dr. Tarek El Gamal has signed a collaboration agreement between the university and HITS in the presence of Eng. Gamal Shenoda, CEO of HITS; Dr. Maha Al Ghanem, Assiut University Vice-Chancellor for Community Service and Environmental Development; Dr. Asmaa Abd Al Nasser, Dean of Microbiology Research and Studies Institute; Dr. Tayseer Hassan, Dean of the Faculty of Computers and Information; Dr. Beshoy Tharwat, Head of Scientific Reasearch Department; Eng. Mina Tharwat, Head of Bioinformatics Department; and Eng. Sherif Kamel, Head of Smart Medical Devices Department at the Microbiology Research and Studies Institute.

Dr. Tarek El Gamal stated that the university administration always endeavors to elevate its educational process members’ experience; and to provide technical support to its staff and train them. He further added that the technological progress in the molecular biology field is fast-paced prompting the university to keep up with the developments, particularly in the fields of bioinformatics, artificial intelligence (AI), and genetic analysis.

Dr. Maha Al Ghanem pointed out that the ultimate goal of this agreement is to coordinate and collaborate with one another to draw a public policy and a method of work which guarantees achieving the intended objectives which include raising the competence of scientific research students in the fields of information technology (IT) and bioinformatics inside the health sector as well as the agriculture sector (plant-based, animal, or genetic engineering agriculture).

Dr. Asmaa Abd Al Nasser, Dean of Microbiology Research and Studies Institute, said that the terms of the agreement read that first, a collaborative mechanism regarding bioinformatics analysis is to be set out to carry out genetic analysis using the second and third generations of DNA sequences; second, AI is to be used to analyze genes and genetic sequences; third, simulation models are to be designed to add genes, delete them or use them to correct the genetic errors of different living sources (humans, animals, aquatic animals or plants).