May 11, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 5, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 10: The government has made an investment of over Rs1 billion to develop infrastructure for supporting different institutes in biotechnology research activities.

This was stated by Member Planning Commission Dr Kausar Abdullah Malik while addressing the concluding session of a five- day international workshop on ‘Molecular Techniques in Biological Research’ at the University of Arid Agriculture (UAA) here on Saturday.

Dr Malik said over the past six years, liberal support, financial support and investment had been made for this particular sector.

Molecular techniques discussed in the workshop were maintenance of plants and animal cell cultures, electrophoresis techniques for DNA and proteins manipulations, and further refinements of these techniques for obtaining reliable and high quality data.

Several lectures and practical demonstrations were devoted to gene cloning and their manipulation to either improve the productivity of crops or produce biotechnology products useful for the country overall economy.

Several advanced techniques like Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISA), Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism and DNA arrays were also discussed.

Major recommendations of the workshop were to develop a focused group for each molecular techniques and establishment of highly interactive environment among group members. It was also felt that there was an urgent need for modernisation of scientific laboratories, implementation of highest bio-safety and ethical standards.

The need for a bio-safety officer for each education institution was also recommended by the participants. This individual should be well-trained and responsible for the maintenance of safe laboratory practices in every institution in the country, they stressed.

Earlier, UAA Vice-Chancellor Dr Khalid Mahmood Khan, in his welcome address, expressed the hoped that participants would have gathered knowledge from the workshop and would practice that in their respective area.

He said such workshops were very essential as these provided an opportunity to have in-depth knowledge about the main issues. He also praised the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the National Commission on Biotechnology (NCB) for providing financial assistance for the workshop.

The workshop was organised by the UAA’s Department of Biochemistry in collaboration with the HEC and NCB with an aim to bring together scientists working in different fields but using similar techniques.