KARACHI, Jan 7: The University of Karachi will establish a national centre for proteomics on the campus for postgraduate studies and researches in the field of protein.

KU Vice Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim disclosed this while speaking as chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of the 8th international symposium on Protein Structure Function Relationship.

Talking to journalists after the symposium, the vice-chancellor justified the establishment of the centre with the funding by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), saying that since a majority of the protein chemists was available in this city, the centre would be an appropriate forum for meaningful interaction among scientists on identifying new dimensions and more classifications of protein as a subject.

The HEC has agreed to provide funds to the tune of Rs186 million to the university which is all set to launch the proteomics centre in the near future. Earlier, in his speech at the symposium, the vice-chancellor emphasized on producing experts and developing infrastructure in the area of protein chemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology as, he stressed, the expertise and resource were crucially important for the progress of the country.

"Despite being identified as developing nation, we must realize that we are blessed with enormous natural resources and proper utilization of these resources is possible only through development of human expertise and institutional capacity in the field of life sciences," he said.

Dr Qasim hoped this symposium would contribute greatly to developing expertise in life sciences. He pointed out that a major breakthrough in this field had been witnessed when genome sequences was revealed in 2003, and now the ultimate choice of scientists was to investigate and expose the mysteries associated with the gene products, i.e. proteins.

He lauded the services of the HEJ institute for the finest chemistry research works. He said that the prestigious series of protein symposium was also initiated in 1988 by the late Zafar Zaidi, a senior and devoted scientist of the HEJ institute at that time.

The dean of KU science faculty, Dr Mohammad Qaiser, said that the HEJ Institute was now considered as one of the best research institutes in developing countries under the dynamic leadership of Dr Attaur Rehman with its young talented faculty members.

The inaugural lecture on Combined X-Ray Approach for Studying Metalloproteins Function/Disfunction - A powerful approach to Metallogenomics was delivered by Dr Samar Hasnain, a professor of molecular biophysics from the United Kingdom.

The visiting scientist, a KU graduate as well, highlighted the challenges posed to the structural biology community world wide in the wake of explosion of genome sequences and the efforts made so far to meet them.

He said that in spite of a major high throughput structural biology initiatives, taken particularly in Japan, USA and Europe, the structure/ function paradigm on 'genome wide basis' had not even begun and, as such, tremendous opportunities existed for several generations of budding scientists.

He mentioned that mettaloproteins, which made up about 30 per cent of the known genomes, could also generate interest among scientists. He shared information in regard to denitrification process, saying that the conversion of nitrate or nitrite to denitrogen was an example of basic sciences leading to applied science, which could be utilized for treating nitrate contaminated soil around the water resources.

Dr David L. Smith from the USA and Prof H. Bauer from Germany also spoke briefly at the inaugural session. They recalled the services of Dr Zafar Zaidi and appreciated those helpful in bringing the scientists of the world together for scientific collaboration in the field of protein chemistry.

The acting director of the HEJ Institute, Prof M. Iqbal Choudhary, read out a message from Chairman of the HEC Dr Attaur Rehman, highlighting the personality of Latif Ibrahim Jamal, Chairman of HEJ Foundation, who died recently.

The establishment of the HEJ institute at the University of Karachi was one of the most important contributions by the late philanthropist, a successful industrialist as well, added Dr Atta, who was to preside over the inaugural session but could not make it due to his preoccupation in Islamabad, according to the symposium organizers.

The organizing secretary, Prof Atiya Abbasi, told Dawn that as many as 18 foreign delegates, along with about 150 Pakistani scientists and subject experts, were participating in the symposium.

While delegates from the USA, UK, South Africa, Nigeria, Germany and Iran attended the symposium, some other invitees, from Turkey, India and USA, regretted in view of the visa hassles and the security concerns.

Prof Abbasi noted that those coming for the first time to the symposium were reluctant due to geo-political situation in the region, but those having visited Pakistan earlier, too, were attending the programme without any apprehensions.