Secretary meets iGEM team members

PESHAWAR: The Secretary Industries and Technical Education, Farah Hamid Khan, met Pakistan’s first iGEM or international genetically engineered machines competition team members at the Institute of Integrative Biosciences, CECOS University of Information Technology and Emerging Sciences, prior to their departure for Boston, United States.

A press release said the team would be competing amongst 300+ other undergraduate teams in the largest synthetic biology competition. During her visit, the secretary was briefed on the key milestones and progress of the ‘SynBioKP’ project - a dedicated Annual Development Plan scheme titled the’ Propagation of Synthetic Biology’. It aims to promote and support synthetic biology in both academia and industry of the province via a close partnership between the two parties.

This scheme supports the first Pakistani team marking its presence at iGEM competition - held in Boston every year, along with trainings, workshops and community and outreach events to further promote the new field.

Dr Faisal Khan, Director, Institute of Integrative Biosciences, said that they have a talented workforce, a huge untapped market and a growing cluster of hospitals, research institutes and universities. He said they will have enough infrastructures to benefit from the bounties of biotechnology in this province if the right investment pours in.