Vice Chancellor University of Sindh Mazharul Haque Siddique has said that today majority of population in third world countries are faced with poverty, hunger and diseases and added that the scholars and scientists through their research could alone mitigate the suffering of the people.
He was addressing the scientists attended the three days International Symposium organised by the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (Nibge) University of Sindh in collaboration with Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA), Tandojam.
He said that the biotechnology is a most essential discipline of the 21st century, which needs more attention of the scholars of third world including Pakistan to generate fresh knowledge for the promotion of the human life.
He said Jamshoro is a unique place of the country and will be prepared deeper collaboration with the Research Institutes of the country to encourage research for the benefit of the society.
He said it was a matter of great encouragement that the young scholars are concentrating and conducting research work on the problems to reduce misery of the most unfortunate members of the society.
The Vice Chancellor of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) was speaking on this occasion has said that it is high time for the research scholars to co-ordinate their efforts to achieve desire results in the field of Biotechnology.
He said that the majority of the population is facing the difficulties in the treatment of those areas where the medicines have not played its key role and added that the cancer and cardiac diseases are now common and the medicine only providing relief for the time being.
He said that the medical plants are an important area where the research work can be done for the herbal medicines.
He said that the co-ordinate efforts of the research scholars will open up new meaningful avenues.
He also called upon the scholars to guide their junior's research fellow in their efforts to improve their research techniques.
Dr Muhammad Umer Dahot welcoming the scientists said that throughout history inventions has driven progress and helped people address the problems of the age and added that this progress has not been achieved without pain and controversy at times such as war and famine and pestilence.
He said that despite setbacks people in the world over continue to strive to understand the natural world to pursue truth and beauty and to create a better world for themselves and their children.
He said that the Biotechnology has lead to breakthrough in human and animal health care, industrial processing, environmental biodiversity and agriculture especially in the developing countries.
He further said that today we can see advances towards administered vegetable based vaccines against human disease and added that human insulin, interferon synthesis in E-coli and yeast have already been released for commercial use.
He said that immunotoxins are being processed which may have potential for killing tumour cells.
He said that recently the completion of human genome mapping itself is a big Biotechnological achievement, which is going to open the new horizons like gene therapy and elimination of genetic defects and addition of good trials in humans.
He said that the cloning of the organisms is another advancement attributed to Biotechnology.
The Director of the Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA) Tandojam Dr Mazhar Naqvi speaking on the occasion highlighted the progress of their institute done in the field of the research on various issues of agriculture.
In its first technical session of the International Symposium Professor Dr Iqbal Chaudhry delivered his talk on "Biotechnological Approaches in Natural Product Research" said that natural products from medicinal plants have significantly contributed in identifying and understanding novel biochemical pathways and consequently provided not only effective drugs for common diseases but also essential tools in biochemistry and molecular cell biology.
He said that many natural products of therapeutic importance have not been commercialised due to limited supply from natural resources.
He said that now the Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering tools are available for increased production of plant based medicines through plant tissue culture technique and added that there is also an increased demand for phyto medicines for diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, arthritis, dementia, tropical/parasitic diseases and preventive medicines like antioxidants, vaccines, nutritional therapy are now more important.
He said that recently attention is focused on finding new enzyme inhibitors based on natural products.
The three-day International Symposium is attending by the 150 scholars from the Universities and Research Institutes of Pakistan, Iran and other countries.
Total number of 52 research papers will be delivered by different scholars and 20 plenary lectures to be presented during the symposium.