Comment by Riaz Haq on June 7, 2012 at 9:06pm

Here's a Daily Times story on biotech in South Asia:

The government is committed to promoting bio-technology for crop productivity enhancement and food security in the country, said State Minister for National Food Security and Research Sardar Moazzam Ali Jatoi here on Thursday.

“The government has established bio-technology departments at more than 90 percent universities to create awareness and utility of modern bio-technological crops among the youth in the country,” he added. He was addressing the concluding session of a three-day SAARC Regional Conference titled ‘New Frontiers in Agricultural Genomic and Biotechnology’.

The event was organised by the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and National Institute for Genomic and Advance Biotechnology (NIGAB) with an aim to highlight the food security issue and seek possible solutions to the food scarcity and provide the SSARC member states to share their experiences and expertise among the member states for food security in the region. National Food Security and Research Secretary Abdul Basit, Food Security Additional Secretary Dr Ghulam Mohammad Ali chief organiser of the event and NIGAB director, delegates from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan also spoke on the occasion.

PARC Chairman Naveed Salimi, NARC DG Dr Sharif, agriculture scientists, students and researchers also attended the conference. State Minister for National Food Security and Research Sardar Moazzam Ali Jatoi said that the government has strengthened Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) for grant of scholarships to emerging young scholars for higher studies in biotechnology at local and foreign universities.

He added that legislation on Act for Plant Breeders Rights and Seed Act (1976) amendment is in the parliament for approval. “The government is facilitating the research institutes of Pakistan for the development of collaboration with international public and private research organisations,” he remarked. “In this regard with the personal interest and involvement of president of Pakistan and prime minister memorandum of understandings have been signed with Chinese and Brazil governments for research on BT cotton, sugarcane, ethanol production, banana and oil seed crops research,” he remarked. Jatoi added that an active programme has been started in collaboration with USA for the eradication of cotton leaf curl virus through genetic engineering, foot and mouth disease in animals.

The State Minister for Food and National Security also stressed the need for a solid and a joint forum at SAARC level and setting up of SAARC biotechnology commission to achieve this objective. He said that Pakistan would extend full cooperation in this regard.

Speaking on the occasion, Basit said that SAARC region is broadly classified as low income or low middle income category in global parlance. He said that poverty and hunger remain one of the major challenges before the region and agriculture remains predominant sector of the regional economies.

“A vast majority of population in the region lives in rural areas and depend upon agriculture for livelihood and sustenance and for efficient and effective communications, then should be a joint meetings of member states scientists at least once a year to discuss the regional biotechnology related research and development issues,” he remarked. Dr Sharif said that livestock is one of the major income generating resources of rural community in the region and called for research on the use of bio technology tools for promotion livestock sector in order to increase milk and meat production and disease management. The conclusion of the conference a number of recommendations for the development of SAARC region were put forward for the governments and policy makers in the region..

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\06\08\story_8-6-2012_pg5_15

Comment by Riaz Haq on August 2, 2012 at 11:07am

Here's a News report on Pakistan's published scientific research output:

Pakistan is expected to have second highest increase in research output ranking in the world, increasing from its current position of 43 to 27 in 2018. An encouraging news for higher education sector in Pakistan, the ranking is announced by the Scopus, world’s largest abstract, citation database of research literature and analytical tool similar to Web of Science (Impact Factor).

The Scopus initiated a forecasting exercise on predicting in April 2011 under the topic, “How World Scientific Output will be in 2018”. According to the results of this mega exercise based on the research output from 2003-2010, Pakistan is expected to have the second highest increase in research output ranking in the world.

Commenting on this development, HEC Executive Director Professor Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi said this ranking recognises the tremendous growth in research in higher education sector of Pakistan over the past ten years and it also predicts the a bright future for research in Pakistan.” The HEC has accomplished more in nine years since its establishment than was achieved in the first 55 years of Pakistan’s existence. Recently, six Pakistani universities have been ranked among the top 300 Asian universities.

Research output has grown eight-folds since 2002 (from 815 in 2002 to 6,200 in 2011). Around 80 per cent of these research publications from Pakistan are coming from higher education institutions. Output has more than doubled just in the last 3 years and is expected to double again in the next 3 years.

More than 5,000 Pakistani scholars have been facilitated to present their research work in leading conferences of the world. The HEC Video Conference Network is established in all public sector universities by covering 31 cities. The network is recognised one of the mega interactive network by having total 79 purpose built e-classroom based videoconference set-up.

Access to 140 plus free software provided to over 1 million students in higher education sector and there has been more than 80,000 downloads from 68 universities during 2011-12. During 2011-12, a total of 447 accredited lectures/ lecture series have been conducted by both Local and Foreign Speakers under the Virtual Education Programme, totalling to 1,043 lectures since commencement of programme.

The academic circles have termed the Scopus ranking as great success and honour for the county in particular and higher education sector in general. They believe that if the continuous support may be given to this sector and the faculty continues their work with same zeal and vigour, Pakistani higher education sector can win more laurels for the country.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-124146-Pakistan-expected-to...

http://www.scimagolab.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/forecasti...

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 5, 2012 at 1:17pm

Here's a BR report on Pak & US scientists collaborating on fighting cotton diseases in Pakistan:

Five American scientists travelled to Pakistan to help Pakistani scientists and farmers combat cotton disease, which has infected cotton throughout country’s cotton belt and can substantially reduce yields and incomes for farmers.



American and Pakistani scientists, in coordination with Pakistan’s Ministry of Textiles and Industry and the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), launched a workshop to develop solutions to the Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) problem in Pakistan. This workshop is part of the U.S. government sponsored Cotton Productivity Enhancement Program.



In his remarks, Todd Drennan, U.S. Agricultural Counsellor, said “Agriculture touches so many lives in Pakistan and is a vital part of Pakistan’s economy. The United States wants to help enhance the productivity of Pakistan’s agricultural sector, especially small farmers. This cooperation between U.S. and Pakistani scientists on cotton is an example of that commitment.”



The workshop completes a ten day visit by the American technical team. The team met Pakistani cotton scientists to discuss the results of research on CLCV. The team also visited cotton breeding trials in Faisalabad and Multan. As a result of these trials, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the team reported good news that some new varieties of cotton are showing preliminary signs of resistance to CLCV.



Small farmers are especially vulnerable to the economic impacts caused by this disease.

Because of this, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designed the cotton disease research project to help Pakistani farmers. American agricultural scientists continually visit Pakistan to collaborate on research to combat disease affecting Pakistan’s principal crops, especially cotton and wheat.

http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/77038-pakistan...

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 7, 2012 at 10:36pm

Here's a Nature report on Pakistan's science & technology policy:

As they hail Pakistan's first comprehensive national science, technology and innovation (ST&I) policy, the country's science leaders are hopeful of effective implementation and funding.

The 'National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy–2012', launched last month (23 November) with support from the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology and the ministry of science and technology, is expected to help Pakistan emerge as a scientifically sensitive nation.

Describing the policy, at the launch, as "demand-driven and people-centric ", Changez Khan Jamali, federal minister for science and technology, said it was a milestone in Pakistan's self-reliant development strategy.

Jamali said the new policy was focused on improving the quality of life for common people through the creation of a conducive industrial and economic environment.

Pakistan has an ambitious plan to increase its science budget to 1 and 2 per cent of annual gross domestic product spending by 2015 and 2020 respectively, against the present 0.6 per cent.

Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar, secretary in the ministry, told SciDev.Net that he looked forward to "having close to 1 per cent allocation in the 2013 budget."

"The only fuel to make this policy a success is real political and fiscal support, which government is committed to provide – so there are hopes for an innovative and technologically advanced future for Pakistan," Tarar said.

A national policy for ST&I has been in the making since 1960 when the National Science Commission of Pakistan was constituted and tasked with finding ways to promote scientific research.

However, various hurdles stood in the way, the chief among them in more recent years being funding cuts forced by the recession and natural disasters.

The new policy focuses on environment science, biotechnology, energy, water, minerals, ocean-sciences and engineering as critical areas demanding priority.

It recognises innovation as an integral part of the S&T system while emphasising development of human resources, training and education.

Manzoor Soomro, chairman of the Pakistan Science Foundation, an autonomous body under the science ministry, told SciDev.Net that to make the new policy serve the country's socio-economic development better, public-private partnerships and academia-industry linkages would need to be forged.

"Higher Education Commission and the well-developed offices of research, innovation and commercialisation that already maintain R&D links with different public-private organisations, would be the beneficiaries of this policy," Soomro said.

http://www.nature.com/news/pakistan-s-new-science-policy-raises-hop...

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 3, 2013 at 9:16pm

Here's a News story on life sciences conf in Pakistan:

Terence Taylor is the founding president of the International Council for Life Sciences (ICLS). Previously, he was vice-president of the Global Health and Security at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), president and executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-US (IISS-US). He had earlier worked as an assistant director with the IISS at its London headquarters.
---------------- He was in Karachi to the Fourth ICLS-KIBGE International Conference on “Science, Technology & Engineering: Innovative, Yet Responsible” recently and was interviewed by The News. Excerpts follow:

Q: What was your impression of the ICLS-KIBGE International Conference?

A: How delighted I was to be back in Karachi with my colleagues and friends, in particular the leadership of ICLS-Pakistan. I thank Dr A Q Khan Institute of Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering (KIBGE), University of Karachi, for the splendid organisational event. I made a series of points at the conference rising from the discussion. Firstly, importance of communication between scientific disciplines, including the social scientists and with engineers. I also stressed the need of communication with the scientific community, legislators and the general public. I talked about the importance to build confidence between scientific community, about what they are doing and are taking exclusive steps to assure safety, security and ethical conduct in carrying out their work. I also stressed the need to build and sustain the network of engineers and scientists in Pakistan and I called for ideas, particularly the younger generation how to bring this about.

Q: You are associated with life sciences. What opportunities do you find in exchange programmes in life sciences between Pakistan and the United States?

A: There is a splendid opportunity to exploit the exciting advances in life sciences, which the scientific community in Pakistan should seize. This is due to the intensive nature of the way in which life sciences are moving forward. It is being driven by the rapid advances in information technology and genetic sequencing. Thus, it is about people and knowledge that can be transformed and accessed at a relatively low cost. In effect, it is democratisation of sciences.

Q: What are your expectations from the ICLS-Pakistan?

A: It is now the time for action and that has to come from you. ICLS-Pakistan is ready to help to play whatever role is necessary to make things happen. I suggested two things that you might think to about doing; first it would be a good thing if there is Pakistani participation in the next World Conference on Research Integrity, which takes place in Montreal in May 2013. This would be a wonderful opportunity for Pakistani scientists and engineers to demonstrate their commitment to responsible commitment of science. Second, I would like to see teams of young Pakistani scientists and engineers in The International Genetically Engineered Mechanics Competition. It is a competition in which teams from universities and colleges take part by designing and demonstrating machines and devices that they themselves have made which deliver a useful purpose for answering a specific problem. The competition takes place on a regional basis. I hope the teams from Pakistan will participate in the 2013 Asian Regional Competition. I will encourage young Pakistani scientists and engineers to go to the website of ICLS-Pakistan of the responsible conduct of science project which is at www.respscience.org.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-152295-Pakistan-US-need-to-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 3, 2013 at 11:23pm

Here's NY Times on China's BGI acquiring a Silicon Valley US DNA sequencing firm:

Complete Genomics, a struggling DNA sequencing company in Silicon Valley, said on Monday that it had agreed to be acquired for $117.6 million by BGI-Shenzhen, a Chinese company that operates the world’s largest sequencing operation.

The price of $3.15 a share represents an 18 percent premium to Complete Genomics’ closing price on Friday and a 54 percent premium to the closing price on June 4, the day before the company announced that it would fire 55 employees to save cash and that it had hired an adviser to explore strategic alternatives.

The deal, which will be carried out by a tender offer, is the latest sign of consolidation in the rapidly changing and fiercely competitive market for DNA sequencing. The price of determining the DNA blueprint of a person is tumbling and sequencing is starting to be used for medical diagnosis, not just for basic research.

In 2010, Life Technologies acquired Ion Torrent, and earlier this year, Illumina, the leading manufacturer of sequencing machines, successfully fought off a $6.2 billion hostile bid from Roche.

The deal will give BGI a base of operations in the United States as well as its own sequencing technology. Included is some new technology, described in a paper in the journal Nature in July, that would allow for highly accurate sequencing using tiny samples and would make sequencing more useful for medical diagnosis.

Until now, BGI has been offering sequencing using machines made by others, mainly Illumina. But Illumina has also been offering a sequencing service, in competition with BGI and with Complete Genomics. So it is possible that BGI wants to reduce its dependence on Illumina’s technology.

Complete Genomics, based in Mountain View, Calif., pioneered a new model, offering sequencing as a service instead of selling sequencing machines to laboratories that would do the work themselves.
-------
BGI-Shenzhen is descended from an organization started in 1999 as the Beijing Genomics Institute to play China’s part in the international Human Genome Project.

It is believed to be the world’s largest genome sequencing operation and a symbol of China’s ambitions to play a major role in genomics, and in biotechnology in general. BGI shocked the industry in 2010 when it placed a record order for 128 of Illumina’s high-end HiSeq 2000 sequencing machines at a cost undoubtedly reaching tens of millions of dollars.

While Complete Genomics specializes in human genomes, BGI has sequenced not only human genomes but those of the giant panda and asparagus, not to mention numerous pathogens. It has entered into collaborations with numerous companies, universities and nonprofit organizations in the United States, including Merck; the University of California, Davis; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and Autism Speaks.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/chinese-company-to-acquire-d...

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 4, 2013 at 11:38am

In an ET Op Ed piece titled "Let’s stop promoting corruption in Pakistan’s universities", Prof Pervez Hoodbhoy argues that HEC is encouraging corruption in producing research papers.

tribune.com.pk/story/488992/lets-stop-promoting-corruption-in-pakistans-universities/

What Hoodbhoy ignores is that “Publish or Perish” is the mantra for university professors in the United States. Such incentives have helped push genuine research along with some junk. But the Americans have not thrown the baby out with the bath water, nor should Pakistan.

Pakistan should implement its ambitious plan to increase its science budget to 1 and 2 per cent of annual gross domestic product spending by 2015 and 2020 respectively, from 0.6 per cent now.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/10/dr-ata-ur-rahman-defends-pakistans.html

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 25, 2013 at 9:09pm

Here's an ET report on nanochemistry lab in Karachi:

The country’s first ever nanochemistry laboratory is slated to open at Karachi University next year.

A ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of the facility, called Latif Ebrahim Jamal Research Institute of Nanotechnology, was held at the institution on Monday. The first-of-its-kind research centre in the country will be a part of the university’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) and receive Rs50 million worth of funds from the Husein Ebrahim Jamal Foundation.

The director of ICCBS, Prof. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, said that the new centre will be housed in a two-storey building with ten large laboratories, a central instrument room, dedicated library, a central workshop, a pilot plant and faculty, seminar and meetings rooms.

Speaking at the occasion, the founder of the Higher Education Commission, Dr Attaur Rahman, said, “In today’s world, nanotechnology has a major influence on the development of science and technology as well as engineering. The world of nanotechnology involves shrinking things down to a whole new level, where things are a billion times smaller than the world of metres that we live in.” He added that the country’s progress in the field of nanotechnology is strategically important for rapid industrial development. Dr Rahman added that in the near future, many fields, including manufacturing of new diagnostics, medicines, agrochemicals, defence products and engineering equipment will become dependent on nanochemistry.

The university’s dean of sciences, Prof. Shahana Urooj Kazmi, was quite optimistic that Pakistan will be able to create a pool of skilled manpower in the discipline as well as a network with international experts. “I believe the scientists from across the world will have a great time doing research with the latest equipment at the state-of-the-art centre.”

The HEJ Foundation had also played a key-role in the establishment of world-famous HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry at the university, which garnered tremendous recognition for Pakistan in the fields of chemical and biological sciences, said its chairperson, Aziz Latif Jamal. The foundation had also established the largest digital library in the region, named as LEJ National Science Information Centre. It has access to over 31,000 science journals and around 60,000 books from 220 international publishers.

Sindh governor’s adviser on higher education, Aftab Lodhi, was also present at the event.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/512455/first-nanochemistry-lab-of-pakis...

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 25, 2013 at 8:50am

Here's a Dawn report on an emerging science city in Karachi:

....Of these five centers, one is the only institute for human clinical trials in Pakistan, the other a core of computational biology and the third provides consultancy to people suffering from genetic diseases.

----

The centers and their growth have been working towards what has been termed as a ‘silent revolution’ and had been described by Professor Wolfgang Voelter of Tubingen University as a ‘miracle.’

The Hussain Ebrahim Jamal (HEJ) Research Institute of Chemistry was only a small post graduate institute before a generous donation of Rs 5 million in 1976 set the center towards the path of excellence. Latif Ebrahim Jamal’s endowment, on behalf of the Hussain Ebrahim Jamal Foundation, was the largest private funding for science in Pakistan at the time.

The center houses old NMR machines of 300 megahertz to state-of-the-art Liquid Chromatograph Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (LCNMR).

Under the leadership of eminent chemist Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui and Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, the institute became a magnet for more funding and projects from around the world. Over a period of time, it received $30 million in funding from various countries. Recently, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) donated $ 40 million for research on regional and tropical diseases. Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, a renowned chemist and the former chairman of Higher Education Commission said,

---
Currently, the center has one of the largest PhD programs in the country in the fields of natural product chemistry, plant biotechnology, computational biology, spectroscopy and other disciplines at the frontiers of science.

Young scholars research scientific literature at the LEJ National Science Information Center. The facility is connected to the world’s largest science database, ranging from thousands of primary research journals and books. -Photo by author
Young scholars research scientific literature at the LEJ National Science Information Center. The facility is connected to the world’s largest science database, ranging from thousands of primary research journals and books. -Photo by author
The ground floor of the institute holds 12 state-of-the-art Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) machines that are vital in the research of the structure, reaction and other properties of various compounds and molecules, as well as an X-ray crystallography setup which uses X-rays to learn the structure of crystalline material.

The X-ray crystallography setup is used to construct 3-D structures of molecules under study. -Photo by author
The X-ray crystallography setup is used to construct 3-D structures of molecules under study. -Photo by author
“We have recently finished the structure of a compound showing anti-inflammatory activity,” said Sammer Yousuf, senior research officer at the institute who was awarded the Regional Prize for Young Scientists by the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2011 for her work.

“In the last two and a half years our institute was awarded 24 international patents,” Dr Rehman proudly adds.

Since its inception, the HEJ which was inducted into the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) in the ‘90s has produced hundreds of doctorates, thousands of papers and hundreds of international patents, and also helps over 350 industries across Pakistan. The Industrial Analytical Center at the HEJ provides testing, consultancy and research for various industries in Pakistan.

The construction of a state-of-the-art center for nanotechnology is underway while the Jamil-ur-Rehman Center for Genome Research, also falling under HEJ, is almost complete. The center, named after Dr Rehman’s father who was the main donor of the institute, already houses modern gene sequencing machines.

http://dawn.com/news/1058496/pakistans-silent-revolution

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 6, 2013 at 9:50pm

Here's a Nation news story on Knowledge Hub in Karachi:

KARACHI - First time in the history of country, Latif Ebrahim Jamal National Science Information Center (LEJNSIC), Karachi University (KU), is going to start an open learning program, named ‘LEJ Knowledge HUB’, in Pakistan and globally as well.
These views were expressed by former HEC chairman Prof Attaur Rahman while speaking at a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Friday.
“Pakistan is now among the first in the world to initiate a learning platform which includes integrated courses from various major world sources for ready accessibility, structured mentoring and assessment system,” he added.
He said the programme has potential to change the entire landscape of higher education in Pakistan and the developing world.
Chairman Husein Ebrahim Jamal Foundation Mr Aziz Latif Jamal and Director International Center for Chemical, Biological Sciences (ICCBS-KU) Prof Iqbal Chaudhary were also present on the occasion.
Prof Attaur Rahman said that the vision of the program was to provide an interface for the researchers and reputed institutions from around the world to collaborate, share and enhance their knowledge. An easily accessible treasure chest of unending information is being made available to students, faculty and researchers alike, he maintained.
The entire programme is led by our most celebrated scientist and global leader in education, Prof Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman as a monumental service to the nation and the world at large. Talking about his federal minister ship, he said that the first major steps to enter into the new IT age were taken in Pakistan when I (Prof Atta) was the Federal Minister of Science & Technology in 2000-2002.
“Internet access was confined to only 29 cities till early 2,000. It was rapidly expanded to cover 2,000 cities, towns and villages during the next two years. Fiber was expanded from 40 cities to over a 1000 cities and towns. Bandwidth had been priced ridiculously high till then ---$ 87,000 per month for a 2 MB line per month. The rapid improvements in the IT infra-structure allowed me later as Chairman Higher Education Commission to use them for the benefit of the higher education sector,” he held.
“In the year 2001, a satellite was placed in space (PakSat 1) and a couple of transponders were set aside for distance learning courses of the Virtual University that we established in Lahore. Today the Virtual University provides quality education to over 100,000 students and has teaching programs across Pakistan and abroad,” he maintained.
Dr Atta said that the inaugural ceremony of the LEJ Knowledge HUB will be held at Sindh Governor House on December 12, when the 4-day 14th Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants, Spices and Other Natural Products (ASOMPS) will also be concluded; President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussain will inaugurate the country’s great knowledge resource.”
Aziz Latif Jamal said: “LatifEbrahim Jamal National Science Information Center (LEJNSIC) has been serving as a hub of information dissemination and focal center of the Virtual Education Project Pakistan (VEPP) since 2008, led and supervised by Attaur Rahman and Prof Iqbal Choudhary.
Talking about the significance of the Asian Symposium, Prof Iqbal Choudhary said that a special session is dedicated to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ASOMPS, which started in 1960 from Peshawar (Pakistan). Moreover, some plenary and keynote lectures will be also arranged through video conferencing.
“The program will consist of plenary lectures, keynote lectures, session lectures and poster presentations. Each session will address a theme topic within the area of Medicinal Plants and other Related Natural Products. Special events will be arranged to ensure a lively interaction between scientists and students of natural product chemistry,” he opined....

http://www.nation.com.pk/karachi/07-Dec-2013/pakistan-to-start-firs...

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