U.S. President Barak Obama honored the Egyptian team that won third prize of Intel's Global Leadership after discovering a new cure for hepatitis C virus with nanotechnology. The Egyptian team, Nano-Diagx, is the first Arab team to win the competition, organized by the Arab Organization for Science and Technology in cooperation with Intel and UNIDO. The team discovered a new diagnosis for Hepatitis C with quick analysis performed by HCV Nano-Gold test. This way, they could detect the disease if it exists in less than an hour. This technology is based on attacking only the infected cells. The members of the Egyptian team are Tamer Samir, Sheriff Shawki, Ahmed Mansour, Mai Mansour and Ahmed Tolba. The team is lead by Dr. Hassan Azazi. Azazi said his team's most important advantage is the spirit of teamwork, which is uncommon in the culture of the Arab region. He added the project used nanotechnology and gold to develop a cure for HIV hepatitis, which affects more than 200 million people worldwide and more than 100,000 Egyptians annually, particularly in cancer cases and cirrhosis of the liver. head of the Arab Organization for Science and Technology, Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Najjar, said the Egyptian team winning brought pride and happiness. The Egyptian team is the first team in the Arab region to win the third prize in the competition of international technology. He said the Saudi Arabian team ‘Valley Feed' was chosen among the top five teams in the leadership post, with teams from Turkey, Chile, the Philippines and China. Al-Najjar also said he was proud because Arabs in this global challenge proved to the world they are able to contribute in producing better leading competitive technology globally despite current circumstances in the Arab region. In related news, the Chinese Gaitu team won first prize for their project, which adds effects to images without using high-cost programs. In second place was the Russian Maxygen team for their project of a quick, low-cost test for DNA in clinics and medical centers. It should be mentioned 28 technological projects participated in Intel's world Challenge this year. The projects are all from 22 countries; Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Thailand, America, Portugal, Russia, Turkey, India, Uruguay, China, Japan, Brazil, Taiwan, Philippines, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, Poland, Denmark and Israel. The Arab teams that participated are the Egyptian team ‘Nano-Diag X,' ‘Herbatica' and Saudi Arabian ‘Valley Feed.'
