Biography

Naglaa Abdallah is Professor of Genetics at Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, and a Professor at Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, and the Coordinator for BSc Biotechnology Program. She is the coordinator of the National Biotechnology Network for Expertise (NBNE), ASRT. In 2019, she became the Chief of Party for The Center of Excellence for Agriculture (COEA). CREA is a project that has been awarded by USAID fund to be implemented in Egypt at Cairo University through four land grant university of Cornell, UC Davis, MSU and Purdue Universities. In 2009, she was appointed to be the Editor-In-Chief of GM Crops, the first international peer-reviewed journal of its kind will be launched to focus exclusively on genetically modified crops with IF3.333 (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/kgmc20/current). In August 2011, she was nominated to be the Director of Egypt Biotechnology Information Center (EBIC), part of a growing network of Biotechnology Information Centers (BICs) of ISAAA’s Global Knowledge Centre on Crop Biotechnology popularly known as KC – a unique initiative on crop biotechnology established way back in 2000 to meet the growing need for biotech crops related credible information in Asia, Africa and Latin America for enhancing the crop food biotechnology awareness globally. She organized and participating in several workshops and trainings in the field of biotechnology in the region and globally for technology transfer and disseminating information in the field of biotechnology. Dr. Abdallah is a member of the Institutional Biosafety Committee at the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University. In 1991, she joined the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI) as senior scientists where she did most of her researches. Her research focuses on plant molecular genetics and bioinformatics. She is particularly interested in developing transgenic plants resistant to pathogens and better suited for environmental challenges. In 2017, she joined Arab Centre for the Studies of Arid zones and Drylands (ACSAD) - League of Arab States for collaboration as an expert. Also, she is a member of the Joined Research Centre (JRC), European Commission's science and knowledge service, MENA. Dr. Abdallah obtained her PhD from Cairo University in 1986 and was appointed Professor of Genetics in the same University at 1996. Starting her courier in genetic engineering, she was awarded a fellowship in 1986 at OSU. In 1989 she was nominated to attend the biotechnology research program on industrial biotechnology at GFP, Braunschweig, Germany In 1992 she received a peace fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute where she started to explore the field of GM crops. She was invited as a visiting scientist at Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre several times to continue her collaborative work with ILATB. In 2015, she was selected to be among the 100 most influential people in the field of biotechnology-based on a survey of biotechnology and biosciences leaders who nominated living experts currently working in the sector from a range of contributing areas, including industry, academia, public policy, finance, law, and beyond. Dr. Abdallah is engaged as PI or Co-PI in several scientific projects for producing transgenic plants resistant to biotic stresses (virus, fungi and insects) and abiotic stresses funded by ABSP, US-Egypt S&T, MUCIAAERI, STDF and ICARDA. For her research she was awarded the Genetic Engineering encouraging award from Cairo University for the year 1998-1999 and the Biotechnology State award for scientific encouragement in Agricultural Biotechnology for the year 2000-2001. Also, she was awarded for Excellence in Biotechnology award for the year 2008-2009. Dr. Abdallah initiated the biotechnology network at national and regional levels to bring together outstanding scientists and experts in the field of biotechnology to deliberate crop problems, propose and carry out scientific studies and suggest solutions to tackle these problems. In 2012, she organized the 1st International Conference for Biotechnology and food in Egypt as part of the GM Crops & Food activities.

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Research Interest

Crop Biotechnology, plant molecular Genetics and Bioinformatics