KARACHI, March 7: The senior biochemists and young scientists at a biennial national conference have stressed the need to explore the varied experimental approaches in the area of biochemistry and molecular biology.

They suggested for further expansion of technology in biochemistry, development of expertise and addressing of socio-economic and institutional issues in the country.

The biennial conference, which commenced at Karachi University (KU) on Monday, is being organized jointly by Pakistan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PSBMB) and the KU's Microbiology department. The conference on "Emerging trends in biochemistry and molecular biology" will continue till March 9.

Speaking at the inaugural session, the vice-chancellor of the university, Dr Pirzada Qasim, said that the possible development targets could be achieved by promoting science and technology in the country.

Emphasizing over the researches related to the biological sciences, he mentioned that there were a number of institutions where modern laboratories and high technologies were available for carrying out researches of international standards.

Dean of KU's science faculty, Dr Mohammad Qaiser, said the developments made in the field of biological sciences had been benefiting humanity by providing solutions to many of the problems.

The organizing secretary of the conference, Dr Nikhat Ahmed Siddiqui, said that the moot was aimed at providing a focal point for senior and young scientists to share and disseminate knowledge.

She said that programmes of such types should be held frequently to meet the challenges of the recent trends in biochemistry. Dr Attaur Rahman, Dr S Nazrul Hasnain, Dr M Ishaq and PSBMB Secretary Dr Waheed Akhter also spoke at the inauguration session of the conference.

In Dr Zainul Abedin memorial lecture, a scientist from New York State Institute for Basic Research in developmental Disabilities, Dr Sabiha K Hai, discussed the functions of brain and mentioned that the inhibition of a protein "tau" was one of the most promising therapeutic approaches to Alzheimer disease and other nature tauopathies.

She said that just as neuronal activity was essential for normal brain function, microtubule associated protein tau appeared to be critical to normal neuronal activity in the mammalian brain, particularly in the evolutionary most advanced species, the homo sapiens. Another plenary lecture was delivered by Dr Nediljko Budisa of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany.

Mohammad Usman of the Agriculture Research Institute, Tarnab, Peshawar, shed light on his work on the yield and quality of two varieties of soybean from different groups of maturity as influenced by the various levels of plants population under irrigated condition at Swat.

He concluded that soybean being an important leguminous crop, improved the fertility and productivity of the soil and also it helped the growers on one hand to avoid the indiscriminate use of fertilizers and on the other hand, it would reduce a large amount of foreign exchange spent on the import of edible oils and fertilizers.

Dr Wahid Akhtar talked on cloning, expression and sequence analysis of growth hormone gene of a Pakistani caprine breed. He said that growth hormone was an essential polypeptide hormone which was involved in growth, development, and lactation of mammals and had great commercial application in livestock industry.

Dr Arif Kazmi, Dr Samina Iqbal, Kamran Azeem also made presentations, while Dr Attaur Rehman, Dr Shakila Jahangir, Dr Tasneem Qazi and others conducted the presentations. At least a dozen scientific posters were also put on display.