Education: UHS to establish research institute

Punjab government will fund the establishment of a medical research institute at the UHS Kala Shah Kaku campus.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government will fund the establishment of a state-of-the-art medical research institute at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) Kala Shah Kaku campus, said Vice Chancellor Prof Malik Hussain Mubashar on Tuesday.

Addressing a seminar on cancer stem cells at the university, Prof Mubashar said that the University of Liverpool had agreed to offer 10 PhD scholarships to Pakistani students in the fields of cancers, obesity, genetics, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, biomedical engineering and neuroscience.

Earlier, Prof Suraiya Rasheed of the University of South California, Los Angeles, gave a lecture on the research potential of stem cells. She said these could be used to screen and test new drugs, to repair damaged tissue or create new tissue, for instance for those awaiting organ transplants. She said stem cells could also be used to create new bone marrow for people suffering from leukaemia.

Blood transfusion

At a separate seminar, Prof Shahida Mohsin said that the establishment of national and provincial blood transfusion programmes had laid the foundation for a safe and accessible blood supply. She said that regional blood transfusion centres would be established in the provinces and existing blood banks upgraded under programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2011.