Estb. 1882

University of the Punjab

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PU CEMB organizes workshop on CRISPR/Cas Genome Editing Technology
PU CEMB organizes workshop on CRISPR/Cas Genome Editing Technology


LAHORE: (Tuesday, April 30, 2019): Punjab University Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) has organized two days hands on training workshop on “CRISPR/Cas Genome Editing Technology" at its campus. CEMB Director Dr. Tayyab Husnain, researchers and participants from different national institutes of Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta, AJK, Bahawalpur and Lahore were present on the occasion. CEMB Director Dr. Tayyab Husnain in his welcome address said that CEMB researchers have always been at forefront in learning new technologies and then disseminating their skills to fellow researchers at national level. He said that CEMB researchers are not doing research just for the sake of research rather they are working for welfare of common man. He said that in the field of health, virology, sequencing and biopharmaceutical, the projects had been so well conceived by CEMB researchers that they resulted in diagnostic services as by products thus generating revenue for the centre as well as providing services and research products within reach of common man. He said that on agriculture side, CEMB had developed insect resistant cotton varieties which had been approved by the government and were being used by farmers at fields i.e. CA12, CEMB33 and CEMB66. He said that CEMB researchers were working hard to produce varieties that had all the properties i.e, insecticide resistant, virus resistant and drought tolerant at the same time. He said that CEMB researchers had already employed this state of the art CRISPR technology in various projects and the results are promising. He said that as we were committed to share our expertise with fellow scientists in the country so we had arranged this workshop to share the details of this technology. Later, Dr. Abdul Qayyum Rao from CEMB and Mr. Khayam Javed from Gurdon institute University of the Cambridge, UK gave lectures about CRISPR technology and its implications. Their talks were followed by hands on sessions on designing of CRISPR construct. In the concluding ceremony of the workshop, Deputy Auditor General of Pakistan Chaudhary Abdul Karim appreciated the efforts of the organizers for arranging workshop on the topic and providing an opportunity to share modern knowledge and experiences on the topic.