KARACHI, Sept 12: As many as 18 registered students have started research works in the areas of biomedical and agricultural biotechnology at Dr A.Q. Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, the University of Karachi, it was learnt officially.

The institute named after the renowned nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan is considered as his brainchild. He also contributed a lot towards its physical structure and buildings and laboratories spread over a land piece of over 20 acres and built almost in a style of GIK Institute of Science and Technology.

Three wings of the buildings have been furnished with international standard equipments and other facilities through a development grant of Rs198 million provided by the Higher Education Commission in 2003-05.

Dr Qadeer Khan about four years back had said that the establishment of KIBGE was extension of his efforts to promote education and research in science and engineering technology in Pakistan.

One of the fellows, who had come from outside Karachi, was found highly impressed with the development. He admired for the vision behind the project and quoted Dr Khan who in a KIBGE brochure had stated: “We stand at the threshold of a brave new world, where feats predicted in Fred Hoyle’s scientific novels will no longer remain fiction and are fast becoming realities of our lives.”

A senior instructor at the institute said that it was good to see all equipment installed and functional and the research students busy in the laboratories. The institute now has 18 students registered for MPhil-PhD programme of Karachi University and six more are in the process of developing their synopses for submission to the university.

The main thrust in the biomedical area is disease genetics and population genetics while in agricultural biotechnology the initial thrust is on developing salt and drought tolerant plants (and then cultivars) of wheat, canola and lentil. A group is also working on development of one vaccine for three diseases of poultry.

The institute’s vision for the next three years is to have 50 PhD students and 10 to 12 highly qualified and productive faculty members for whom posts are being created and search will be made through various methods. The institute is basically a research institution and in another three years should be able to generate some new technology and create a name internationally, the instructor added.

KIBGE Director-General Dr S.H. Mujtaba Naqvi, a former chief scientist of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, who joined the institute about four years back, told Dawn that the institute was established by the University of Karachi in cooperation with the Dr A.Q. Khan High Technology Trust. The KIBGE is now functioning as a constituent institution of the Karachi University and is governed by a governing council chaired by KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim.

The council, comprising of representatives from the university, the Dr A.Q. Khan High Technology Trust, the KIBGE, the HEC and two eminent scientists will deliberate upon various issues covering the institute at its first meeting to be held on Sept 22, 2006.

Referring to the ongoing research projects of the institute, Dr Naqvi said that congenital heart disease, brain tumors, epilepsy, hepatitis B, C & D, deafness and other human diseases were being studied to understand their possible genetic basis.

Arrangements have been made with various hospitals, physicians and surgeons through which blood samples or brain tissue have been collected from hundreds of patients and work on it is in progress.

Dr Naqvi mentioned that blood samples from leprosy patients and those for an undiagnosed but prevalent disease in some tribes of Sindh were collected earlier and sent to a sister lab, the Biomedical and Genetic Engineering Division of the KRL in Islamabad where they were being processed.

He said that noted scientist Dr S. Qasim Mehdi and three of his colleagues located at the KRL sister lab were guiding all the work in diseases and population genetics. In agricultural biotechnology, tissue culture of wheat and canola has been successfully established and the stage is set for incorporation of salt and drought tolerance through genetic manipulation, he added.

Discussing about the regular faculty positions, he said that some policy decisions would be taken at the forthcoming meeting of the governing body, while two foreign faculty professors, Dr Nasreen Sattar and Dr Javed Qureshi, both coming from the USA, had joined the institute.

About the quality and merit of researchers, Dr Naqvi said that the institute had very stringent criteria of merit for inducting students. After a public notice, the applicants having good academic records went through a written test and those who qualified were interviewed by a board. After short listing, the candidates were interviewed again in order to select the very best, who after further scrutiny were admitted to an MPhil-PhD programme by the University of Karachi. Eighteen such students were now registered for the programme and six more were in various stages of developing a synopsis. It was likely that the first batch of PhD holders would come out in another two-year period, Dr Naqvi added.

Highlighting the priorities of the plant biotechnology wing at the KIBGE for the next five years, Dr Javed Qureshi said that the work was going on for establishing tissue culture and genetic transformation capabilities for wheat, oil seed, lentils and sugarcane.