US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Development and Evaluation of Various Novel Probes to Detect Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)

描述：该奖项是为了支持一个合作项目，由博士说A。位于威斯康星州麦迪逊的Promega公司技术开发团队负责人Goueli和部门主席Mostafa Kamel El Awady博士。他是埃及开罗国家研究中心人类遗传学研究所的人类遗传学主任，以及埃及亚历山大市穆巴拉克市遗传工程和生物技术研究所医学生物技术方案的代理主任。 这两位科学家计划合成不同的肽，并产生抗原特异性多克隆抗体，用于使用基于ELISA的系统检测丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染人群中病毒的存在。 将开发的系统对卫生条件的变化和处理程序的波动不太敏感，因此在欠发达国家的环境中更有用。 该项目的具体目标是：在内部开发一种基于ELISA的检测方法，以筛查一般HCV感染人群。 这将通过市售参考试剂盒和基于RT-PCR技术的试剂盒的性能进行验证;并开发用于对一般HCV感染人群进行分型的内部RT-PCR试剂盒，并通过参考试剂盒验证结果。 范围：该项目将涉及两个具有互补能力的实验室，在两国的一个重要领域进行研究。 大部分研究工作将由El Awady博士的小组进行，美国通过Goueli博士访问埃及和埃及科学家访问Goueli在威斯康星州的实验室参与。 该提案符合INT支持美国与外国在互利领域合作的目标。 该项目是国家卫生研究所和埃及政府举办的生物技术讲习班的结果。 国家卫生研究所参与了对该项目的评估，并建议给予支持。 该项目得到美国-埃及联合基金方案的支持，该方案由美国国务院管理，向两国的科学家和工程师提供赠款，以开展合作活动。

Description: This award is for support of a cooperative project by Dr. Said A. Goueli, Team leader of Technology Development at Promega Corporation, in Madison, Wisconsin, and Dr. Mostafa Kamel El Awady, Chairman, Dept. of Human Genetics at the National Research Center (NRC) in Cairo, Egypt, and Acting Director of the Medical Biotechnology Program at the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology research Institute, Mubarak City, Alexandria, Egypt. The two scientists plan to synthesize distinct peptides, and generate antigen-specific polyclonal antibodies that are useful in detecting the presence of virus in Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)-infected population using ELISA-based system. The system to be developed will be less sensitive to variations in hygienic conditions and fluctuations in handling procedures, and thus more useful in the environment in less developed countries. The specific aims in this project are : develop in-house an ELISA-based assay to screen the general HCV-infected population. This is to be validated against reference kits commercially available and against the performance of kits base on RT-PCR technology; and develop in-house RT-PCR kit for subtyping the general HCV-infected population, and validating the results against reference kits. Scope: This project will involve two laboratories with complementary capabilities to conduct research in an important field for both countries. Most of the research work will be conducted by Dr. El Awady's team, with US participation through a visit by Dr. Goueli to Egypt, and visits by the Egyptian scientist to Goueli's laboratory in Wisconsin. This proposal meets INT objective of supporting US-foreign collaboration in areas of mutual benefit. The project was generated as a result of a workshop on biotechnology organized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Egyptian Government. NIH was involved in the evaluation of the project and in recommending its support. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, administered by the US Department of State, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out cooperative activities.