We extend a warm welcome to the distinguished Nobel laureates, teachers, researchers, working in the field of biotechnology, biotechnologist and pharmaceutical industry leaders from around the world to the United Arab Emirates for the First Biotechnology World Congress (1st BWC).This cutting edge and forward-looking conference, which will see delegates present and deliberate advances in many disciplines of drug discovery and therapy, is timely and vital to the improved health and wellness of humanity. It is anticipated that up to 1000 of the world's leading scientists, researchers, industrialists and academicians, including several Nobel Laureates, in the fields of medical and biological sciences, will attend this forum in Dubai to share and discuss new scientific ideas, products and breakthroughs. We are indeed pleased to host such an international conference in the United Arab Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates is an obvious choice to host such a specialized scientific conference, which will have global implications. As H.E. Sheikh NahayanMabarak Al Nahayan, Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the HCT said at the opening of the 2011 ICDDT in Dubai: "We are a country that promotes creativity and values innovation; a country committed to building a knowledge society where ideas drive economic success and help affect positive change. The improvement of the health of our citizens is one of our nation's highest priorities". Furthermore, the UAE's geographic location puts it at the centre, or nexus, of the very populous and developing Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, providing enormous opportunities and new markets for scientific research and for new products and solutions.

One of the most important and pressing challenges facing today's researchers, technologists and innovators is to design, develop and distribute products and solutions which are accessible and affordable to the large mass of the world's less affluent population. There is a need for research efforts in drug discovery and therapy to be further focused towards the treatment of specific diseases afflicting this part of humanity and to also continue the ground-breaking work to improve the standards of health for all citizens of the world. Furthermore, visionary efforts, combined with innovative technologies, are needed to address the gap between supply and accessible treatment. Other challenges faced by the scientific and research communities include meeting the demands of an increasing ageing population, dealing with lifestyle diseases in both developing and developed economies and slowing the inexorable spread of communicable diseases. But ultimately the most significant challenge may be addressing and defeating the presence of resistance epidemics. The deliberations and recommendations of this conference will have a significant impact on the future directions of business development, strategic alliances, partnering trends, product opportunities, growth, business models and strategies, licensing merger and acquisitions, outsourcing, venture capital and financing and intellectual property.

The participants will also have excellent deliberation on pharmaceutical biotechnology, vaccines, CNS, Cancer, antibodies, protein engineering.

The conference will have variety of lectures from eminent scientists including Noble Laureate who will deliver lectures on plant and environmental technologies, transgenic plants and crops, bioremediation, microbial diversity and bio-monitoring.

The lectures will also be delivered on industrial and manufacturing, biofuels, energy crops (Cellulosic ethanol industry) industrial Enzymes, bioprocess engineering and optimization.

During the deliberations a major focus will also be given to medical biotechnology, stem cells, gene therapy, tissue engineering, bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing, cell based therapy, cell cultivation, diagnostics, imaging, pharmacogenomics, microarray technology, biomarkers. Also there will be important lectures on food, marine, bio-safely systems biology, clinical reserved/clinical trials, bioethics and Nano biotechnology.