Islamabad, Sept. 9 : COMSTECH organized a webinar on “Advanced methods for structure determination of proteins and their complexes: drug discovery for motor neuron disease to COVID-19”, online on Thursday.
Dr. Samar Hasnain, Molecular Biophysicist, delivered this webinar. He talked about advanced methods for determining structures of proteins and their complexes. He gave a comprehensive overview of protein structure determination, steps of producing recombinant protein and protein purification. Dr. Hasnain discussed crystallization of protein and its role in the drug discovery and development. He informed that one drug to treat COVID patients is under trial, and it will complete by summer 2022. He gave a comprehensive account of the history of crystallography, current developments and future prospects.
Dr. Christian Betzel, University of Hamburg, introduced the speaker to the audience, whereas Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General, COMSTECH gave the background and talked on the importance of the webinar. A large number of audience — scientists, students, and researchers — from OIC member states attended the webinar.
Samar Hasnain, PhD in experimental Physics, from University of Manchester is a structural biologist with over 45 years of synchrotron radiation experience. Dr. Hasnain has pioneered an approach to define the structures of metalloproteins: now widely used by the structural biology community. He is a fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK; The World Academy of Sciences, Italy; Royal Society of Chemistry, UK; and Foreign Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He is currently Max Perutz Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Co-Director of Barkla X-ray Laboratory of Biophysics, University of Liverpool, UK.
