Abu Dhabi to Host New Quarterly Forum to Attract U.S. BioTech Firms

The UAE BioTech Symposium will attract U.S. and international BioTech owners and executives new to exploring opportunities in the UAE marketSecondcell Bio CEO Dr. Kambiz Shekdar will serve as symposium ChairmanThe UAE BioTech Symposium will be hosted in partnership with AmCham Abu Dhabi’s BioTech Committee and Masdar City

ABU DHABI, UAE, Sept. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The UAE’s leadership is heavily investing in its knowledge-based economy where expanding the BioTech sector is a top priority.

The newly formed UAE BioTech Symposium will provide a forum for U.S. and international BioTech owners and executives exploring opportunities in the rapidly growing BioTech sector in Abu Dhabi and throughout the Middle East. Event registration will go live on AmCham Abu Dhabi’s website this week. To learn more, go to the UAE BioTech Symposium page on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/uae-biotech-symposium/.

The symposium will be hosted in partnership with AmCham Abu Dhabi’s BioTech Committee and Masdar City, taking place on November 6-8, 2024 at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE, including roadshow destinations throughout the Arab Gulf States of the GCC to follow, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

“I’m so happy to welcome my U.S. BioTech colleagues,” says Secondcell Bio CEO, AmCham Abu Dhabi BioTech Committee Founding Chairman and UAE BioTech Symposium Chairman Dr. Kambiz Shekdar PhD, “At least 40 known to me plan to make their first trip to seriously explore business opportunities to witness firsthand what has captured my imagination. Welcome, colleagues, Marhaba!”  

Shekdar is the first U.S. BioTech inventor who has transitioned to the UAE. His journey started 2.5 years ago with his first trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Shekdar recently moved to Abu Dhabi, upon being issued the prestigious United Arab Emirates Golden Visa under the Inventor category, becoming the first BioTech inventor to receive this coveted visa status.

Secondcell Bio joined AmCham Abu Dhabi as the first BioTech corporate member in recognition of its support to help accelerate the emerging BioTech sector in the UAE. Recognizing that BioTech was a high priority for the UAE government, AmCham Abu Dhabi CEO Liz Beneski advocated for the creation of the AmCham Abu Dhabi BioTech Committee, where Shekdar serves as Founding Chairman.

The mission of the BioTech Committee is to establish a BioTech sector in Abu Dhabi with a focus on promoting opportunities for U.S. BioTech companies in Abu Dhabi and throughout the Middle East, bringing together government, investor, corporate and academic stakeholders. As

Founding Chairman of the BioTech Committee, recruiting additional U.S. BioTech companies to join was a priority task, where Shekdar has recruited five U.S. BioTech members and counting. All members of the BioTech Committee will be sharing their announcements at the event.

UAE BioTech Symposium is anticipated to attract approximately 150 qualified attendees interested in exploring opportunities in the UAE by offering a forum to foster collaboration, innovation, growth and catalyze progress within the BioTech sector among entrepreneurs, researchers, governmental representatives and strategic investors.

Attendees of the symposium will have the opportunity to hear from an esteemed group of internationally recognized speakers and government representatives, including Her Excellency Dr. Maryam Matar, Founder and Chairperson of UAE Genetic Diseases Association, who will share her expertise on “Rare Disease and Precision Medicine.”

Tanya Cole, Regional Senior Commercial Officer for GCC and Commercial Counselor for UAE at the United States Embassy in the UAE, who will present on “BioTech is the Future” at the opening reception.

Dr. Patricia Morris, MS, PhD, former President of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), an organization representing over 150,000 American experimental scientists through its member organizations, and Secondcell Bio Senior Scientific Health Policy Advisor, will discuss “BioTech Sector Growth in the United States of America.”

Director of the Columbia University Center for Human Longevity, Columbia University Medical Center Southworth Professor and Chairman Emeritus of Medicine and Secondcell Bio Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Donald Landry, MD, PhD, will present on the topic of “Longevity” as part of a panel focused on “The Emirati Genome and Future of Medicine in the UAE.”

Also participating in this panel is John Rockefeller, JD, MPH, DrPH, Director of Research Foundation for Cure Initiatives and former board member of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, who will address “Medicine for the World” to make medicines available for all those in need worldwide by working with groups like Emirates Red Crescent.

Ten members of the Secondcell Bio’s team and advisors, including Dr. Particia Morris, MS, PhD, Dr. Donald Landry, MD, PhD, and Mr. John Rockefeller, JD, MPH, DrPH, will be accompanying Dr. Shekdar on the occasion of the UAE BioTech Symposium for additional meetings with UAE stakeholders regarding the creation of “Emiraticell Bio,” a national level BioTech joint venture company with UAE partners to discover and commercialize “Made-in-Abu-Dhabi BioTech IP.”

Following seven trips to the UAE spending four months in the country in 2022 and 2023, Shekdar became convinced the UAE was the right place to scale up his technology. “It is the combination of innovations like ours plus the leadership, vision and scale of implementation as I’ve seen mastered only in the UAE that gives our partnership the potential to leap-frog the global industry,” says Shekdar.

We invite members of the press to learn more. Private one-on-one briefings are available for scheduling as follows:

1)  Members of UAE and GCC press: 10am to 8pm, Monday September 16, 2024, 10am to 8pm, Monday September 23, 2024 and 10am to 8pm, Monday October 7, 2024, GCC Time Zone
2)  Business & technology press: 7am to 5pm, Tuesday October 8, 2024, EST Time Zone
3)  All members of the press: 10am to 10pm, Wednesday October 9, 2024, GCC Time  Zone

To schedule a private one-on-one press briefing, please contact Fabienne Duchini at [email protected].

At a closed-door press briefing, Shekdar will share his personal experience navigating business opportunities in the UAE, adapting to the culture and his impression of the opportunities and challenges for others considering the move. We encourage members of the media including business press, U.S. and local outlets to join for a firsthand account of his experience pioneering a new sector of the knowledge based economy in the most mature market in the Arab Gulf States.

Additional information on Dr. Shekdar’s journey as the first U.S. BioTech inventor transitioning to the UAE is available via his editorial commentary in his column in Manhattan’s community print newspaper WestView News and in his video series on YouTube series:

Dr. Shekdar’s “From Oil to Medicine” in WestView News:
https://westviewnews.org/2023/01/17/from-oil-to-medicine/westview-news/

Dr. Shekdar’s “From Oil to Medicine: China Gains” in WestView News:
https://westviewnews.org/2023/02/23/from-oil-to-medicine-china-gains/westview-news/

Dr. Shekdar’s “From Oil to Medicine” video series on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYkGNvFnSipvs1nbcV2nJBpAZdTv3JGry

About UAE BioTech Symposium
UAE BioTech Symposium in partnership with the AmCham Abu Dhabi BioTech Committee and Masdar City will host quarterly panel discussions and lab tours in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and roadshow destinations throughout the GCC and Middle East. The events are free with attendance limited to prioritize U.S. and international BioTech owners and executives. Program details will be posted online in Arabic and in English as registration for each event goes live via the AmCham Abu Dhabi website.

Arabic site for scientific program: http://www.uaebiotechsymposium.ae

English site for scientific program: https://www.uaebiotechsymposium.com

About UAE BioTech Symposium Chairman Dr. Kambiz Shekdar, PhD
From invention at The Rockefeller University to IPO at New York Stock Exchange to scale-up drug discovery for jointly owned Made-in-Abu-Dhabi IP in the U.A.E., Dr. Kambiz Shekdar is the first U.S. Biotech Abu Dhabi Golden Visa Inventor transitioning to the U.A.E.

Dr. Shekdar, PhD invented Chromovert® Technology while he was a graduate doctoral student in the laboratory of his mentor, the late Nobel laureate & King Faisal Prize winner Dr. Gunter Blobel, MD, PhD. at The Rockefeller University in New York City. For more than 20 years, Dr. Shekdar has been pursuing applications of the same platform technology, now including pursuing the creation of a joint venture with Emirati stakeholders to implement the by-now validated research engine as part of a national-level public-private partnership for drug discovery at scale in the U.A.E. Dr. Shekdar is also a member of the Abu Dhabi, UAE chapter of American Chambers of Commerce where he is Founding Chairman of the AmCham Abu Dhabi BioTech Committee.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kambiz-shekdar-51a52a34/

About AmCham BioTech Committee
The AmCham BioTech Committee was formed to establish a BioTech sector in Abu Dhabi with a focus on promoting opportunities for U.S. BioTech companies with a vision to be a thought leader and facilitator for U.S. corporate interests in the emerging BioTech sector in Abu Dhabi and throughout the Middle East. Since its founding, the BioTech committee has seen a notable uptick in interest from U.S.-based companies seeking to broaden their service offerings within the region. AmCham BioTech Committee founding members include Seconcell Bio, Intelligenix Advanced Diagnostics, Extend Biosciences, Halia Therapeutics and Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL).
https://amchamabudhabi.org/biotech/

About AmCham Abu Dhabi BioTech Committee Founding Chair Secondcell Bio
Secondcell Bio™ is building public-private partnerships worldwide to scale-up the demonstrated and largely automated platform biotechnology originating from The Rockefeller University. The company was formed by Dr. Kambiz Shekdar, PhD, inventor of Chromovert® Technology. Secondcell Bio owns Chromovert® Technology.
https://www.secondcellbio.com

Biological science deals with the human cell. Cells that exactly mimic human disease are fundamental for discovery of new drugs. However, in a sea of cells engineered to model disease, only a tiny number are suitable. Detecting and isolating the optimal cells is extraordinarily difficult. Chromovert® facilitates the detection and purification of even exceedingly rare, desired cells. Applicable to any gene and any cell, the platform technology opens new applications in flavors and drug discovery, biologics manufacturing, cell and stem cell therapies, and crop engineering. The scientific publication of the technology is available at this link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10529-021-03101-5 

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SOURCE Secondcell Bio, LLC; UAE BioTech Symposium