Scientists from Quetta and Peshawar come together for an Integrative Biology Symposium

Quetta/Peshawar – Twelve leading researchers, six from each side, presented their latest findings in the areas of cancer biology, genomics, drug development, machine learning and public health.

The BUITEMS-PML Integrative Biology Symposium 2021 was a virtual gathering with an objective to exchange and share the newest research findings and insights between the life sciences communities in Quetta and Peshawar and to build bridges and collaborations that can enable exchanges of ideas and researchers between both sides.

The symposium brought together HODs, faculty members, research staff, PhD scholars, undergraduate students and researchers from both sides – the Faculty of Life Sciences and Informatics (FLSI) at BUITEMS in Quetta and the Precision Medicine Lab in Peshawar, which is an affiliate of the National Centre for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC), jointly hosted by CECOS University and Rehman Medical Institute (RMI). The symposium stood out with its unique approach and format and its cutting edge content in the area of integrative biology.

Professor Nazeer, the Dean FLSI at BUITEMS, in his opening remarks said, “We need a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and collaborative strategy to uplift our research agenda. In this regard, this symposium is our attempt to foster collaborations that will go on to bring together high quality researchers for many years to come”.

The symposium was graced by many senior faculty members, including Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmad (Dean, FLSI), Dr. Faisal Khan (Principal Investigator, PML), Dr. Shahjahan Shabbir (Chairman, Biotechnology, BUITEMS), Dr. Malik Akhter (Chairman, Environmental Sciences, BUITEMS), Mr. Shahram Khan (Community Lead, PML) and Dr. Madina Barakzai (Clinical Research Assistant, PML) among many others. There were 12 lightening talks delivered by researchers, each followed by a live Q&A session.

The talks covered diverse areas, including drug screening assays, x-ray image classifiers, UV radiation driven COVID genomic alterations, effects of environmental stress on health and protein interaction networks in head and neck cancers.

Dr. Faisal Khan, Head of the Precision Medicine Lab, ended the symposium by sharing his thoughts and said, ‘I am really looking forward to ideas that come out of this, and I am very keen to explore how we can work closely together in the future. I hope we can making it an annual event, to be able to share ideas and exchange research students and ultimately forging a strong scientific relationship between Quetta and Peshawar’. In the end, he thanked the lead organizers from both sides, Dr. Asma Abro and Ms. Yusra Ilyas, for a tremendous effort.

 

Inquiries:

Mr. Shahram Khan, Precision Medicine Lab, Peshawar

shahram@precisionmedicine.pk; 0320 737 3333