Community of Biotechnology (COB) is a national non-profit organization, founded in May 2017. The organization works with students and researchers, enhancing their expertise and future scopes in their respective fields of biology. Additionally, the community involves the assessment of individuals from both public and private universities of the country and offers hands-on training sessions. Researchers and students from various biological fields - biotechnology, molecular biology, microbiology, genetic engineering, medicine, pharmacy, biostatistics, bioinformatics, pure sciences, and many more, have numerous opportunities to learn, alongside working with COB. Within a span of 3 years, it has created countless opportunities for students in such fields, to establish a strong base of their major and, easily communicate and share ideas with their mentors from different fields. COB offers various training sessions including bioinformatics, oncology, CRISPR-cas9, etc., which involve mostly practical and remote modules for the national students. Moreover, they have also proposed innumerable research competitions and projects within the students of the community. COB conducts frequent workshops and webinars with the top-most scientists from around the world. Furthermore, we have collaborated with the Executive Director of Addgene, Dr. Joanne Kamens, who is also an advisor of COB. Dr.Kamens has founded the current Boston chapter of the Association for Women in Science and was also the Director of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Mentoring Program for 3 years. Community of Biotechnology, also collaborated with Kate Adamala, a Synthetic Biologist and Professor of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development at the University of Minnesota, USA. Our future endeavors also include - working with David Andrew Sinclair, who is a Professor of Genetics and Co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School. COB has also planned on working with Sophien Kamoun, a Tunisian biologist, a Senior Scientist at the Sainsbury Laboratory, and a Professor of Biology at the University of East Anglia. On the list of collaborations, we also have Mr. Rino Rappuoli, the Chief Scientist & Head of External Research and Development (R&D) at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vaccines. These national and international collaborations will enable us to open the gates of a more accessible R&D index, as well as a surging internship scope for the students of Bangladesh. Our mission and vision involve outstretching the possibilities of STEM in this country and to assist the vulnerable students of this community in both fields of study and research. We guide and counsel researchers, faculties and students for their career paths and emphasize on their abilities for future research. Till now, students working under the Community of Biotechnology have published more than 70 research papers in multiple reputed journals. Our plan is to make the best out of all the future scientists of Bangladesh and provide the opportunity for this country to serve a huge role in the scientific fields of the world.
