After a rapid evolution in the last five decades and innumerable momentous advancements in physics, chemistry and computing science, the science of biophysics does not entail any introduction. Biophysics is a scientific discipline which falls into both physical and life sciences and overlaps closely with physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology—in fact all the four disciplines may be called as one embodiment of science.

This is the reason that biophysics becomes the base and a crucial requirement of education and research in biomedicine, specifically in medical and dental sciences. Importance for biophysics in dental science becomes quintessential owing to the complex, profoundly technical and interdisciplinary nature of dentistry. The extremely important sciences of oral biology and dental materials are two most closely related subjects to biophysics.

There are countless biophysics departments all over the world, especially in the US, England, Germany, and France, and more than hundred reputed medical schools in the US alone have either initiated biophysics departments or upgraded their physiology or biochemistry departments to biophysics departments. In India the potential of the field was identified about two to three decades ago and thus there are a few departments of biophysics and a number of government-funded biophysics projects underway across the nation.

In Pakistan, there has been awareness of medical biophysics for some time, although unfortunately no department of biophysics or graduate programme in biophysical sciences existed till last year. However, when it comes to the important and rapidly-accelerating field of dental biophysics, there is very little or no awareness. Bright young dentists graduating with masters in any modern dental science subject from a reputed school in the western world have had significant exposure of dental biophysics, either directly (as part of their curriculum) or indirectly (as part of their research projects).

This is not the case in Pakistan though. The majority of dental professionals in Pakistan are unfortunately not even cognizant of the name of this important science. In fact this science has such an immense potential in their work that it can make a tremendous difference in not only their research but practice as well. With standardisation of higher education and emphasis on incorporation of new techniques and new areas of study important for education, it becomes highly imperative, in fact crucial, that dental graduates in Pakistan must be introduced to appropriate coursework in biophysics.

When already the medical and dental graduate students are extensively taught with biophysics models and techniques indirectly in the subjects of oral biology, molecular biology, physiology, biochemistry, dental biomaterials and orthodontics, and when a large proportion of their (proper) research projects have biophysical techniques as integral parts of them, I believe inclusion of a course of biophysics as part of the medical and dental curricula is highly desirable.

These were perhaps the concerns and requisites which led to the initiation of a Dental Biophysics & Biomaterials MSc programme at the world-renowned Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), owing to ground-breaking work by one of the world leaders in the field, Professor Paul Anderson at QMUL. QMUL’s MSc programme became the very first masters programme in dental biophysics and biomaterials (and the only programme of its kind in the whole world so far, till initiation of the second programme in Pakistan last year at Dow). In addition, the QMUL MSc in Oral Biology programme, also developed and led by Prof Anderson, received due emphasis on dental biophysics and biomaterials in the curriculum.

At the time of initiation and establishment of the first Department of Biophysics in Pakistan at the Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi (one of Pakistan’s two oldest and most prestigious medical institutions), we had similar concerns. We, in consultations with our able and competent colleagues like Prof Paul Anderson, Prof Zahoor Hussain Shah, Prof Masood Hameed Khan and Prof Junaid Ashraf, tried to contemplate the local needs of not only physicists, chemists and physicians but also the dental scientists, and came up with a programme in dental biophysics with some similarities and on the same footings as the QMUL dental biophysics programme.

In fact, the whole nation can take pride in the fact that Dow University’s Dental Biophysics & Biomaterials programme became the first in the whole Asia and the second in the whole world (after QMUL). Although India has a slight edge in the region in terms of biophysics, with biophysicists working on important problems of biophysics at the medical institutions of India, it has yet to initiate a dental biophysics programme or laboratories.

We are also fortunate that we received informal patronage of no one else but Prof Paul Anderson himself, a brilliant oral biologist and dental biophysicist and one of the masterminds of the QMUL Dental Biophysics, Biomaterials and Oral Biology programme, who very kindly went at length with us in formulating and developing some important aspects of the curriculum, and even continued his support to the programme as part of the programme’s executive committee and thesis/dissertation review board.

In addition to following the QMUL model, at the time of initiation of the programme, we tried to incorporate a US-style and US-standard rigorous programme of training, especially in view of my own rigorous US doctoral and post-doctoral training and the success of US graduate education all over the world. Thus, our efforts and the support of the Dow University and its able Vice Chancellor, and with support of Prof Anderson, Prof Rafiq Khanani, and Prof S.M. Raza (the Advisor, HEC), finally resulted into formulation of an excellent programme in medical and dental biophysics, which is pragmatic, rigorous and contemporary.

Dental biophysicists also study interesting problems in modern biomedical research, such as cell growth and stem cells. Students in Dow MS Dental Biophysics & Biomaterials programme are now developing models to study cell growth as well as stem cells biophysics with special relevance to the development and diseases of the oral cavity (see bottom pic). A group of students is devoted to studying novel biomaterials for use in dental biomaterials and orthodontics, whereas another group of students is working on projects on bioinformatics and molecular biophysics to study proteins involved with the progress of oral carcinomas (oral cancers) among other problems.

The other important element of the MS programme in Dental Biophysics & Biomaterials is the Biomaterials part. Biomaterial Science is an extremely important and prolific area of material science. In view of its eminence in nearly all the areas of biomedicine, ranging from life-saving cardiac measures to prosthetics, it is pertinent for the subject to be included in a dental biophysics programme.

Equipped with all the tools necessary for extending an edge to the medical and dental scientists, the MS programme also facilitates a mechanism towards reaching an edge for the nation in the cutting edge areas of biomedical research (beholding the way biophysics is a key part of all the modern research in biomedicine).

There is immense potential for the long-neglected field of medical and dental biophysics in Pakistan and the public institutions, especially the medical and dental council, are advised to kindly take necessary measures to identify and support this field in a reasonable manner.

The writer is an international advisor in Interdisciplinary Science and Frontier Sciences and is a visiting faculty with a number of institutions including Dow University, University of Houston, University of Texas and University of Malaya.

mbukhari at gmail.com