Islamabad, June 30 (COMSTECH): COMSTECH, Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), Royan Institute, Mustafa (pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation and Sindh Innovation, Research, and Education Network jointly organized international webinar on “Genomic Characterization of Neuromuscular Disorders in Pakistan” on Wednesday.
This was the third webinar of the PCMD-Royan Institute webinar series. This webinar series is a joint venture of PCMD and Royan Institute, Iran. It is held physically in Pakistan and Iran and people around the world join these webinars online. COMSTECH, Mustafa (pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation and Sindh Innovation, Research, and Education Network provide support in the organization of these webinars.
Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, Associate Professor at the Dr. Panjwani Center conducted this webinar. He talked about the genomic characterization of neuromuscular disorders in Pakistan. He said neurological disorders are heterogeneous group of disorders, they affect the peripheral and central nervous system. Dr. Ishtiaq talked about neuromuscular disorder and presented the current status of the prevalence of this disorder in Pakistan. He said Pakistan lies in the region which is under high burden of neuromuscular disorder and the basic reason is consanguineous marriages.
Dr. Ishtiaq mentioned that neurological conditions pose a great diagnostic challenge due to complex clinical presentation, phenotypic overlap, and rare disorders. He said that next generation sequencing and bioinformatics are very helpful in diagnosing neurological disorders.
Dr. Ishtiaq said that Jamil-ur-Rahman center for genomics research center at the ICCBS is first genomics facility of Pakistan. He said this center is providing training to researchers from all over Pakistan.
Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan is Associate Professor at the Dr. Panjwani Center. He is Ph.D. from the H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry, ICCBS, University of Karachi, and is post-doctorate from the Beijing Genomics Institute, Shenzhen China, and the Sanger Wellcome Institute, Cambridge.
His research group is working on microbial, viral, and human disease genomics. During the current pandemic, his group carried out genomic surveillance studies on SARS-CoV-2 and contributed to informed decision-making at the national level.
