LAHORE : (Wednesday, January 06, 2010): A two day symposium on ‘Working with Proteins in Post-Genomic Era' began at Punjab University School of Biological Sciences (SBS) on Wednesday. Biologists from various institutes of the country will deliver a total 10 lectures on the different aspects of the topic, while four lectures and a video conference from Glasgow University was held on the first day. PU SBS is organizing the event in collaboration with the Pakistan Society for Biocehmistry and Molecular Biology while the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the British Council have sponsored this symposium.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran was the chief guest at the opening ceremony while Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Jamil Anwar Chaudhry, Prof Dr Waheed Akhtar, Prof Dr Shahida Hasnain, biologists, research scholars from acrss the country were present.

Speaking on the occasion, the vice-chancellor said that production of quality research work and performance of a faculty was co-related with the number of PhDs it has. He said we cannot compete with the world until and unless we work in the field of research on war footings and that was why production of quality PhDs was his only priority. Dr Mujahid Kamran said PU had extra-ordinary raw talent in the form of students and research scholars and there was only need to train them.

Prof Dr Jamil Anwar Ch said that unfortunately during the last 20-30 years, we talked about everything but not the biochemistry. He said that chronic diseases like cancer can be only cured by the people of biochemistry. He said PU could proud of the work being done at School of Biological Sciences (SBS) and Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB).

Dr Waheed Akhtar said that the symposium intends to highlight the recent developments and dissemination of rapidly increasing knowledge in the areas of proteome research. He said renowned scientists with specialization in these areas from within the country and abroad shall deliver talks on the methodologies used to underpin the conformational and function aspects of the proteins. He said the interaction of the participants with the experts in these fields should be helpful in stimulating their research efforts. He hoped that researchers particularly the PhD scholars from the SBS and other institutions shall benefit from this symposium.

On the first day, four lectures were delivered including ‘Genomes to proteomes-An overview' by Muhammad Waheed Akhtar, ‘Understanding protein structure-function relationship in post-genomic era' by Shamshad Zarina, ‘Transcription induced chimeras' by Ilham Shahmuradov and video lecture on ‘Microsphere preparations for slow release of polypeptide hormone' by Chris van der Walle.

Tomorrow six lectures will be delivered including ‘X-ray crystallographic analysis of proteins' by Jamil Ahmed, ‘Structure function studies of recombinant vibriolysin: A metallopreotease and potential virulence factor of V. cholerae ' by Muhammad Kamran Azim, ‘Protein conjugation system: An effective way in clinical research, diagnosis and treatment' by Muhammad Hassan Qureshi, ‘Optimization of gene expression and protein targeting' by Aftab Bashir, ‘Mass spectrometry in proteomics' by Najam-ul-Haque and ‘Application of NMR studies to determine the structure of protein' by Shazia Sagheer.