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Welcome to the Science Summit at UNGA76, a major contribution to advancing Science for the UN SDGs. Online from 14- September - 5 October 2021.
ISC will organise the second edition of the UNGA76 Science Summit around the 76th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA76) in September 2021. The objective of the virtual meeting will be to raise awareness of the role and contribution of science to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It will demonstrate initiatives that provide models for global science mechanisms and activities in support of the SDGs, particularly in science infrastructure and capacity building. Science is and will enable sustainable economic, environmental, and societal development. Science is more than a funding prioritisation exercise: science is impacting all areas of policy-making and is playing a more critical role in how policy objectives are achieved and the consequent benefit to people everywhere, including responses to global challenges.
Engagement with policy leadership is more important than ever: UNGA76 is a unique forum for science to demonstrate how policy and political leadership can benefit from innovation. Central to this is the role of nonstate actors and the multilateral fora, which increasingly determine how priorities are set. Science needs to be part of this dialogue and inform outputs through thought leadership, evidence, insights, analysis, and innovation.

Registration is available here.
avatar for Yaqoub Ashhab

Yaqoub Ashhab

Palestine-Korea Biotechnology Center, Palestine Polytechnic University
Director
Palestine
Websitehttps://biotech.ppu.edu/en/Genomics-and-Molecular-Diagnostics
Yaqoub Ashhab is an associate professor of molecular biology and bioinformatics at Palestine Polytechnic University and a visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He received his PhD in molecular biology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1998. From 1999-2005 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow and a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2013-2014 he spent a sabbatical leave at the Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Research Center in Italy. In 2007, he joined Palestine Polytechnic University to lead the establishment of a biotechnology research unit that was funded by the European Union and the World Bank. He also led a national project to establish the Palestine-Korea Biotechnology Center, which was a kind donation from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).  
During his postdoc, Dr. Ashhab discovered the BIRC7 gene, which has become an important biomarker in various types of cancers. His current research interests are using genomic data to develop diagnostic assay and to design genome-based vaccines. He is currently an active partner in several European research groups and academic collaboration networks. He has authored and co-authored over 40 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences.
Dr. Ashhab is a co-founder and board member of the Palestinian Forum for Medical Research (PFMR), which focuses on capacity building of young biomedical researchers. Furthermore, he has a long-standing interest to address challenges and opportunities of developing countries to harness the potential of the genomic big-data revolution. Towards this goal, he has been working on developing various bioinformatics training courses as well as an educational channel in Arabic on YouTube.