Past Events

08-10 April 2019

COMSTECH in collaboration with International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Pakistan organized a three-day workshop on Genome Editing and Other New Breeding Technologies for Global Food Security. It was held on 08-10 April 2019 at the COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad.

This initiative is part of COMSTECH efforts to fulfill the expectations voiced in the 1st OIC S&T Summit in Astana 2017 for helping member states to address food security concerns in the face of rising populations and global climatic changes. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who are leaders in the Islamic World in the new breeding technologies, have already formed a working group. This group collaborates actively in research and manpower development in these cutting edge technologies e.g. genome editing, speed breeding and development of crop varieties for saline and drought conditions. One of the goals of this workshop was to extend this group to include other member states and to move onwards for greater on-ground impact of these activities.

The Inaugural Session of the workshop was addressed by Prof. Mark Tester, Leader of The Salt Lab, King Abdul Aziz University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Dr. Munir Ahmed, Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), and Dr. M. Azeem Khan, Member Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan and Dr. Shahid Mansoor, Director NIBGE. Prof. Tester highlighted the challenges being faced in providing sustainable food security and the opportunities provided by the new breeding stories including the success stories for various new crops. Dr. S. K. Hasanain, Advisor COMSTECH, explained the OIC initiatives being undertaken for capacity building of member states. Other keynote speakers highlighted the efforts of the Government of Pakistan in improving the agriculture sector productivity and the use of S&T for this purpose. They extended their full support in forging collaboration with OIC member states in agriculture.

The technical sessions of the workshop were addressed by 12 foreign speakers and Resource Persons from Australia, China, Germany, Turkey, Kenya and India. 19 participants from OIC states viz. Oman, Malaysia, Nigeria, Benin, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman and Palestine attended the workshop. A total of 125 participants attended, including local participants from academia and research institutions. The workshop provided introduction and application of genome editing and new breeding technologies to researchers and students working on crop improvement or genomic selection of livestock. The workshop had a mix of interactive sessions, lectures and hands on training sessions.

A special session chaired by COMSTECH was held on the sidelines of the workshop and attended by representatives of the participating OIC member states. The meeting resulted in agreement from all participating countries to become part of the working group which would be led by NIBGE. A second major outcome of this meeting was agreement on the scope and goals of a proposal to be submitted to the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and OIC for providing support to the activities of the working group for promotion of new breeding technologies. The proposal would be prepared by NIBGE (Pakistan), KAUST (Saudi Arabia) and NOH University (Turkey) and coordinated by COMSTECH.

Date: 10^th September 2020
Time: 03:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time; 02:00 pm Gulf Standard Time;
10:00 am Greenwich Mean Time

COMSTECH has arranged webinar to discuss light based science and technologies and its impact on electronics, medicine, and in general natural sciences including chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy, and earth sciences. 

Target Audience: This webinar is open to science policy makers, academicians, scientists and general public from all the member OIC states.

Poster of webinar:  Attached

Abstract of talk: Attached

Speaker’s Profile:

Yusuf Yagci is a full professor of Chemistry at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. (1979) degree from Liverpool University (UK). He joined Istanbul Technical University in 1980 where he continued all his academic activities till now.  He has published over 600 original research papers and 48 book chapters, and is the inventor and co-inventor of 10 patents. He is the recipient of several awards including The Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ) International Award (2008), OIC Ministerial COMSTEC International Award (2010), OIC Science & Technology Award (2017), and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (2017), Belgian Polymer Group International Award (2018), Japan Photopolymer Science and Technology Award (2018), Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (2018).

Link for registration and E- certificate:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfMJtIxb3jfaWmAfAGd9E6V6KlnYuFuhaRG2Ll0QJyDPAXOUg/viewform

Procedure to join:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89099468761?pwd=RldsSjcvUTEwOGZTMjVUYnBUS2o4QT09

Meeting ID: 890 9946 8761
Passcode: 483685

Contact Information: 

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad 
Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3
Email: Khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

Click here for the Video 

Global Coordinator
International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications
Executive Director,
Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre

Date: 24^th August 2020
Time: 03:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time; 02:00 pm Gulf Standard Time;
10:00 am Greenwich Mean Time

COMSTECH has arranged webinar to discuss impact of democratising science for science and society. Speaker will also sensitise the audience on principles and tools used for science communication.

Target Audience: This webinar is open to science policy makers, academicians, scientists and general public from all the member OIC states.

Poster of webinar: Attached:
Abstract of talk: Attached:
Speaker’s Profile: Attached:

Link for registration and E- certificate:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJ3T8-6KCLYCN3yOYh4Pylr6CZfTygnkZn4VUPOn1voCN0zg/viewform

Procedure to join:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84848124501?pwd=dEx0MFBkb1dKMFFpRWVLL0IyblZpUT09

Meeting ID: 848 4812 4501
Passcode: 418940

Contact Information: 

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad 
Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3
Email: Khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

COMSTECH has arranged webinar to discuss significance of providing science based advice to the governments. Speaker will also touch upon examples of COVID-19 response adopted by the governments in light of scientific advice.

Click here  to watch the recording.

Target Audience:
This webinar is open to science policy makers, academicians, scientists and general public from all the member OIC states.

Poster of webinar:  Attached:

Abstract of talk: The incident of COVID19 pandemic is a good example of how science would provide sound advice to governments. This would entail the role of the scientific community in giving a narrative of the cause and origin of the pandemic right to detailing the steps that need to be taken to mitigate this gargantuan problem. Being a multi sectoral and multi disciplinary issue, it calls on the whole spectrum of scientific discipline to be involved, namely from the natural sciences to the social sciences and humanities. While governments scramble to find the best economic package and health well-being of the affected countries, the single biggest cause which should not be neglected would be environmental in nature, i.e. the root cause of the zoonotic disease is destruction of wildlife habitat.

Speaker’s Profile: Attached:

Link for registration and E- certificate:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcP80al-3_W_2XQXZ-xSf11LhQXsaWGkr0PYuPjro_MAMVcA/viewform

Procedure to join:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86317009703?pwd=YUtCSm55Y3B4Q2QyeDJjbXllNjRndz09

Meeting ID: 863 1700 9703
Passcode: 141669

Contact Information: 

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad 
Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3
Email: Khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

Course Flyer

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has brought a state of emergency worldwide. This pandemic has affected underdeveloped and developing countries due to lower resources in diagnostic and healthcare sectors. The first case of SARS-CoV-2 virus in Pakistan was confirmed on 26th of February 2020. As of 8^th July 2020, there have been about 237,489 confirmed cases with 140,965 recoveries and 4,922 deaths in the country.

The current reference test for the diagnosis of active infection by SARS-CoV-2 is a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assay. The need for increasing levels of testing for COVID-19 has been identified by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and by the UK government. In this context, COMSTECH, in collaboration with the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi is organizing a workshop on the diagnostic workflow of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The workshop is designed to address the interest of scientists and research scholars from different fields of biological sciences including Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, and Biotechnology.

WORKSHOP CONTENT

The program includes a series of online lectures and hands-on sessions on the following topics;

• Sample collection from suspected patients by oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs
• Viral RNA extraction from the collected samples
• Synthesis of complementary DNA (cDNA) and amplification of target sequences of the viral genome using real-time polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) amplification
• rRT-PCR data interpretation

VENUE

Zoom Meeting

WORKSHOP PROGRAM (Pakistan Standard Time)

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

12:00-12:05   Inauguration Ceremony

12:05-12:10   Recitation of the Holy Quran

12:10-12:20   Welcome Address by Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary

12:20-13:30   Lecture 1 entitled, “Selection and collection of appropriate clinical specimen for molecular diagnostic of viral infection”

13:30-14:30   Practical Session (Sample Collection, and Virus RNA Extraction)

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

12:00-13:00   Lecture 2 entitled, “Current Molecular Diagnostic Assays for SARS-CoV-2 and its importance”

13:00-14:30   Practical Session 2 (RT PCR)

Thursday, August 20, 2020

12:00-13:00   Lecture 3 entitled, “RNA extraction and PCR technicalities for accurate diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2”

13:00-14:30   Practical Session 3 (Interpretation)

14:30-14:45   Closing Ceremony

REGISTRATION PROCESS

Please download the registration form. Kindly fill the form and submit it to the undersigned before August 14, 2020. Registered participants will receive e-certificate

CONTACT PERSON

Hanifa Beg
Programme Manager
COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-9220681-3
Fax: +92-51-9205264, +92-51-9220265
Email: hanifa@comstech.org

by
Prof. Dr. Zulfiqar A Bhutta, FRS

Founding Director, Institute for Global Health & Development, the Aga Khan University, South-Central Asia, East Africa & United Kingdom

Chair in Global Child Health & Policy, Centre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children & University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Date: 13^th August 2020

Time: 06:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time; 05:00 pm Gulf Standard Time;

01:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time: 09:00 am US/Canada EDT

COMSTECH has arranged webinar to discuss diversity of response of OIC Member states towards Covid-19. Speaker will also touch upon implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions in wake of COVID-19. Role and impact of governance mechanisms towards Covid-19 will also be elaborated. This webinar is open to physicians, academicians, scientists and general public from all the member OIC states.

Poster of webinar: Attached:
Abstract of talk: Attached:
Speaker’s Profile: Attached:                                                                 

Procedure to join:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86933103240?pwd=SzE2bGNpc1pjTGMzdWx5ZUJ6VCs5QT09

Meeting ID: 869 3310 3240
Passcode: 159753

Contact Information: 

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad 
Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3
Fax : 92 51 9211115, 9220265, 9205264
Email: Khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

Jointly organized by
OIC Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH),
International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS),
Sindh Innovation, Research, and Education Network (SIREN)
Venue: COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad

September 9, 2020,
Time: 17:00PM-19:00PM

Introduction of Event

Research and innovation are the keys for introducing high-technology products in the market, which has a direct link to the global transformation of economies. These innovative products are required to be legally protected in the form of intellectual property at the national and international levels to allow financial benefits to inventors and the country. It will also facilitate reinvestment in the technological development. Intellectual property, i.e., patents, trademarks, copyrights, has gained enormous importance in the knowledge-based economies. Patent protection is usually essential in the life cycle of technology development, but it is highly relevant to the research and development stage of the  technology development process. Patent protection of an invention in several different countries gives rights to inventors to  use their patent-protected invention freely in those countries during the life of a patent, which is usually 20 years from the date of filing. A patent also provides financial opportunities to inventors and their institutions through licensing to third parties.

Many countries do not recognize the significance of patents. OIC countries with a total population of 1.8 billion have only 6195 US patents, i.e., one patent per 290,000. On the other hand, the USA has one patent per 116 populations. Developing economies need to focus much to link their IP with their growing economy. The best examples of economies rising because of IP are China, Japan, and South Korea.

This certificate course is specially designed for scientists and engineers from OIC member countries, providing them the opportunity to gain a detailed insight into various aspects of an IP strategy, management, and commercialization. Course will be delivered by one of  leading scientists and internationally renowned IP expert of USA.

Distinguished Speaker’s Profile:

Prof. Dr. Sarfaraz K. Niazi, FRSB, FPAMS, FACB, SI,
Adjunct Professor, The University of Illinois and University of Houston
Visiting Professor, H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry, and NUST
Patent Law Practitioner, US Patent & Trademark Office, USA
Email: niazi3@uic.edu;
Tel: +1-312-297-0000

Professor Dr. Sarfaraz K. Niazi, FRSB, FPAMS, FACB, SI, is a patent law practitioner in the US, an entrepreneur, a teacher and researcher. He himself owns more than 200 US patents, authored over 100 research papers and 60+ major technology books. He is also serving as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois, College of Pharmacy, Ad Hoc faculty at the University of Houston, Texas, the H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry (ICCBS), Karachi, and the National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad. He has also served as a Foreign Professor at the H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi.

He serves on the editorial board of several journals and a fellow of Royal Society, Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences and American Society of Clinical Biochemistry. In 2013, he received one of the highest civilian awards, Star of Distinction (Sitara-e-Imtiaz) in Engineering, from the Pakistani President. He has hosted a radio show at Voice of America (US State Department) every week for more than seven years, with the audience into billions.

Professor  Niazi has been helping the Higher Education Commission of  Pakistan in developing US IP for the Pakistani scientists for more than 15 years.

Procedure to join:

Interested candidates are required to fill the online registration form and submit by the deadline (September 4, 2020). Zoom link for the training will be placed on the website soon.

Course Coordinator: 

Hanifa Beg
Programme Manager COMSTECH
Tel: +92-51-9220681-3   
Fax: +92-51-9205264, +92-51-9220265
Email: hanifa@comstech.org
Website: comstech.org

Innovation in Entrepreneurship Education –
Using Experiential Learning to Connect Theory and Practice

Organized by COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad-Pakistan
Venue: COMSTECH via Zoom Meetings
September 30, 2020 – 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm PST

Please submit the online registration form up to September 30, 2020, by 2pm (GMT +5).. Registered participants will receive e-certificates.

Key Speaker M. Nauman Farooqi, Ph.D.
Dean of Business & Social Sciences Professor of Finance & Entrepreneurship Ron Joyce Center for Business Studies Mount Allison University Sackville, NB, Canada

There is a growing demand for educational institutions to evaluate and recognize the importance of learning outside the university setting.  The objective of this session is to share the instructor and student learning experience of the use of experiential learning pedagogy in an entrepreneurship course using Practical Organization Behavior Education (PROBE) model. The PROBE model, which was originally developed to teach organization behavior, has been modified and extended to effectively teach various business courses. However, the use of PROBE in an entrepreneurship course is innovative and as such needs to be shared with the learning community.

Objectives

• Introduce the main features of the experiential learning process,
• Share the application of this methodology for an entrepreneurship course
• Promote the use of the experiential methodology in entrepreneurship and other courses
• Share and benefit from the feedback received from the students

Workshop Activities

• The session will begin with an introduction to the topic and details of the initiative.
• Viewing of video feedback from students.
• Interactive exercise
• Group discussion and feedback.

Target Audience

• University/College faculty
• Instructional and Curriculum Developers
• Researchers
• Policy Makers and Government Officials

Registration Process for Participants from OIC Member States

Please submit the online registration form  up to September 30, 2020, by 2pm (GMT +5).. Registered participants will receive e-certificates.

Workshop Coordinator

Shaharyar
Programme Officer
COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-9220681-3
Fax: +92-51-9205264, +92-51-9220265
Email: shaharyar@comstech.org

This is for the information that online hands-on training workshop entitled “Developmental Psychoanalysis” will be conducted by Dr. Alexandra M. Harrison (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Core Faculty of the Infant-Parent Mental Health Post Graduate Certificate Program at University of Massachusetts Boston).

The workshop will be organized by Department of Psychology, University of Karachi and Boston Psychoanalytic Society Et Institute (BPSI) Massachusetts, USAin collaboration with Virtual Education Project Pakistan (VEPP) as per following schedule:

Dates:                        August 08 to September 05, 2020

Days:                         Every Saturday (except August 29, 2020)

Time:                         04:00 PM to 05:30 PM

Registration fee:               Free

Available Seats:                 100

Registration last date:     August 06, 2020

Kindly register online for the course using below website, which is mandatory:

for registration click here

Flyer

All registered participants can attend this online workshop through ZOOM video conferencing software (connection details will be shared through email to the shortlisted participants).

Note: Successful participants will receive a digital certificate upon completion of the workshop.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:             

Individuals with Master in any field of Psychology are invited to attend this informative workshop

For More Information Click Here 

For Registration Form Click Here 

Note: Please complete this form and send it to events@comstech.org , not later than 20th July 2020.