UNESCO Honors Egypt’s Menna Al-Serafi in Paris

By: Ibrahim Eldeeb and Norhan Mahmoud

CAIRO, Mar. 20 (SEE)- Egyptian Researcher Menna Al-Serafi was honored as one of the winners of the “L’Oreal-UNESCO” prize for women in science, thanks to her impressive contributions in genome!

Al-Serafi quests to discover new functions of proteins that could help repair DNA damage, which causes various immune, neurological and cancerous diseases.

“As a first step, researchers should know what caused the disease. And, that’s what we are trying to do,” explained Al-Serafi. “In Future, we aim to find out if specific pathogens could aid in improving diagnosis and treatment.”

Currently, the biologist carries out her genetics’ researches at the Genome Science Center in Zewail City, under the supervision of Dr. Sherif Al-Khamissi.

In 2010, Al-Serafi obtained a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology. Prior to joining the Zewail Genomics laboratory in late 2015, Al-Serafi headed for Germany to have a masters’ and doctorate degrees in Microbiology and Genetics to her name.

Since its launch in 1998, the “L’Oreal-UNESCO” program has supported more than 3000 inspiring female scientists from 117 countries worldwide.

Alongside Al-Serafi, fourteen other fellowships grantees were given the award in recognition for their work in various scientific fields.

Each year, a ceremony is held at the headquarters if the UNESCO’s in Paris, France, celebrating the winners.