LAHORE (Wednesday, March 25): A three day symposium on “Future Trends in Molecular Biological Research and its Applications in Agriculture and Health” began at centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab on Wednesday March 25. The symposium was formally introduced by Prof. Dr. S. Riaz-ud-Din, Director National centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab . Dr. Sajida Hassan introduced the guests. The symposium was presides by the chief guest Ch. Waheed Sultan Ex- Director General Ayoub Research Institute Faisalabad, Dr. Shaheen N. Khan CEMB and Dr. Tayyab Hussnain CEMB. Dr. S Riaz-ud-Din introduces the CEMB and importance of new and emerging scientific activities. He present the scientific progress made by molecular biology in past two hundred years and its future trends. He said that CEMB is providing the facility to exchange scientific ideas for cross fertilization under one roof. He said that evolution in biological research has led to revolution in molecular biology research. He told about the interaction between life scientist and physical scientist. He discussed the research projects, facilities and techniques provided to younger scientist by CEMB.

In the session of “Medical Molecular Biology” Dr. Shaheen N. Khan CEMB, presented an overall progress of Medical molecular Biology Research at CEMB.

She emphasize on the facilities provided by the CEMB in the field of Forensic Sciences, Biopharmaceutical, Genetic and infectious diseases. She told that CEMB is producing the Interferon for Hepatitis disease. She discussed the role of molecular biology to find out the genetically improved species of Pakistani horses, cattle and buffalo and research on different human genetic diseases like Deafness, Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), Cataract and Glaucoma in Pakistan . She also introduce the research work on production of regenerative medicine by using stem cell technology for repair of damaged organs like eye, cochlea, heart, liver, pancreas and skin.

Dr. Anwaar A. Khan, Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore discussed on Hepatitis C disease and its current management in Pakistan . Dr. Muhammad Idrees Khan CEMB, Lahore presented an update of research in the field of molecular virology.

He discussed on various facilities and techniques provided by the CEMB for the diagnosis of several infectious diseases like HCV, HBV, TB, CMV, HSV, Typhoid, HCV and HBV genotyping, HCV viral load, MDR-TB and providing general public reliable, economical and rapid detection assays for common infectious agents in clinical samples such as sputum, blood, serum, bone marrow, tissue biopsy, urine, body fluids, semen, CSF, etc. He also introduced the research projects on going in the field of virology at CEMB.

Dr. Javaid Anwar Qureshi from NIBGE, Faisalabad talked about many on going projects in the field of health biotechnology at NIBGE. Dr. Sadia Mohsin CEMB, presented a lecture on “Liver fibrosis: Prospect of stem cell mediated therapy”.

She highlighted the potential of stem cell therapy in generation of damaged liver.

She said that the stem cell therapy holds promise for the treatment of liver fibrosis.

While presenting lecture on “Heart disease and promise of stem cell research” Dr. Mohsin Khan CEMB, showed the improvement of cardiac function after myocardial infraction in rodent model. Dr. Tariq Mehmood LRBT, Lahore , presented his lecture on Limbal cell transplantation which can help in the reconstruction of damaged ocular surface. Mr. Muhammaf Akram Sial, CEMB, talked about development of multiplex PCR kit based on X chromosome Markers for paternity cases. The paternity testing has been used to know genetic father of a child, property disputes and immigration cases. Mr Ghulam Murtaza Anjum CEMB, delivered a short talk on “SNPs: A new tool for human identification” SNPs are helpfl for DNA test of old and degraded samples. In CEMB two new SNP genotyping systems are developed for analysis of degraded DNA samples and identification od biological stains like shed hair, bones, teeth, saliva, and cigarette butts. Mr Saadat Ali from MERCK (PVT) LTD, Pakistan presents the solutions for the problems arising during the experimental work in the field of proteomics. He introduces many reagents and kits offered by Merck Biosciences for convenient, efficient and reproducible sample preparation and analysis of proteins for proteomics.