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Workshop
on Molecular Cloning and Site Directed Mutagenesis
Dhaka the 26th Oct., '08. GNOBB members are
aware that one of our members Dr. Talat Nasim at the Biomedical Research
Centre, King’s College, University of London is organizing a 4-day
workshop in BD. Until now the question was undecided whether the venue will
be at Dhaka- or Rajshahi University. After a good deal of consideration,
the decision has been reached about the time (7-10 December) and the venue
(Rajshahi University). The purpose of the workshop is to explore the
possibility whether outsourcing could be done by BD scientists starting from
King's College. Dr. Nasim is planning to hold a similar workshop next year
in Dhaka University. GNOBB sincerely hope that the effort of Dr. Talat
Nasim and those organizing the workshop at RU succeeds in ushering in a new
era of outsourcing from the modest beginning.
Click here for the details of the
workshop.
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Agriculture
Biotechnology for Better Living and clean Environment
 Dhaka 27th Oct., '08.
ABIC 2009 Trade Exhibition Show and the 3rd International Trade
Exhibition on Biotechnology will be held 22nd through 25th September next
year at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand. The
theme of the Show is: "Agriculture
Biotechnology for Better Living and a Clean Environment". ABIC
2009 is collaborating with the organizers of BioAsia to include BioAsia
2009 Trade Exhibition Show: The 3rd International Trade
Exhibition on Biotechnology during ABIC 2009. According
to an announcement by the Organizers, BioAsia 2009 Trade Exhibition
is expected to attract more than 100 trade exhibitors in the biotechnology
related sector.
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Human
Genome 13th International Meeting (HUGM, 2008) in India
,
Dhaka
9th Oct. '08. HUGO 2008 was held in Hyderabad, India from 27th
–30th Sept. Dr. Sabina Yeasmin, an Assistant Professor in the
Dept. of Genetic Engg. & Biotechnology, D.U., and her student Mustak Ibn
Ayub - a fresh graduate attended the Meeting. The two posters prepared by
them were on display. The
titles of the posters were:
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Poster 18: Sexual
Dysfunction in the brain: An uncharacterized gene’s apparent role in
male sexual dysfunction. Mustak.
Poster 107: Mutation detection in HBB gene from
Thalassemia Patients of Bangladesh -
Sabina
Sponsored among others by CSIR, India HUGO 2008 was
attended by a large contingent of scientists working mostly in CSIR-affiliated
human genome research institutes on various aspects of the human genome.
One of their achievements has been the cracking of the genome of the
Indian population.
Mustak expresses his profound disappointment when he
compares the state of affairs facing S&T in BD compared to India where
best scientists of the country are appointed to head the Dept. of
Biotechnology and Industrial Research.
More...
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Bangladesh
Biosafety Clearing House (BCH): A National workshop
Dhaka the 27th Aug. '08.
Bangladesh is a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The
protocol was ratified it on February 5, 2004.
In pursuance of this protocol, as a signatory, the Bangladesh
Biosafety Clearing House (BBCH) has been established as per Article 20 of
the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The objective of the BBCH is to
facilitate the exchange of scientific-, technical-, environmental- and
legal information on living modified organisms (LMOs).
The Biosafety
Clearing House (BCH) is an information exchange mechanism established to
assist parties to implement its provisions and to facilitate sharing of
information on, and experience with, LMOs. As a part of this
program, a National Workshop on
Cartagene protocol and Biosafety clearing House was organized by
the Dept of Environment, Ministry of Environment and Forest and held
on Aug. 7 at the RDEC Conference room, LGED, Agargaon, Dhaka. Among the
foreign resource persons for
this workshop were Dr. Monoranjan Hota
and Mr. Damir Amirov (UNEP-GEP
BCH Regional Advisors). Dr. Hota discussed about the relevant Cartagena
protocol on Biosafety and the importance of Biosafety Clearing House and
its operational mechanism, while Mr.
Amirov dwelt upon the
kind of
information available in the Central portal of BCH.
The workshop was preceded by a
2-day training workshop for BCH stakeholders and was conducted by
the above two foreign experts. Conveyed by Professor Rakha Hari
Sarker who was one of the participants of the Workshop.
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2-day workshop on regulation & monitoring of confined field trials of GM plants
Dhaka, 2nd September, '08. The 2-day workshop on, "Regulation on monitoring of confined field trials of GM plants in Bangladesh," was held 30th through 31st August, '08 in BARC. Member-Director Crop, BARC inaugurated the workshop. In addition to distinguished professors from DU and BAU, there were some 30 participants to this workshop from three regional Agricultural Res. Stations, e.g. Joydebpur, Jessore and Hathazari (Chittagong). Dr. Robert H. Potter of Agbios and Prof. O. P. Govila from IARI, India conducted the workshop. This training under the experts will help those dealing with GM crops under experimental trial follow strictly biosafety rules so that when these crops are finally released, they do not pose any health hazad to both humans and animals.
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Young
Biotechs of BRACU Visiting GM Crops at BARI under Containment Cond.
Dhaka 27th Aug, ’08. On 21st August 2008 MS students studying
Biotechnology at the MNS Department along with their course teacher and
theTeaching Assistant of the Department went for a study tour of the
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), the largest national
multi-crop research institute in Bangladesh located in Gazipur. At first
students were given a brief introduction to this three-decade-old
institute, its mission and vision. Finally, they were briefed with the
on-going research projects of the 10-year-old Biotechnology Division. By
Dr. Aparna Islam.
More...
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No Impact of Seminars W/o Dialog Between
Scientists & Policy Makers
Dhaka 5th August, 08. While recording appreciation for the speakers who
spoke on the Bioinformatics Seminar on the 5th of August, the three
discussants, Dr. Shah M. Faruque, Prof. Zeba Seraj and Pof. Ahmad S.
Islam pointed out that unless we can convince the policy makers and the
administrators, both biotechnology and bioinformatrics in particiular and
science in general would not strike firm roots; and progress in the
scientific world of the country will not take place with the same space as
in other prospering developing countries. One way to do it is to explain
these emerging scientific disciplines to nonscientists that take decisions
at the national level in a simple and attractive way portraying the
scenario in a business like manner showing both
investments and returns and the economic impact BD would derive from such
frontiers of knowledge. Without this endeavor, there will be
satus quo in our pursuit of S&T, no matter how many seminars and
symposia are held. GNOBB moderator made a clarion call to young graduates
to start a campaign toward breaking this inertia as they did to liberate
the country from the yoke of the Pakistan Army Junta.
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The
9th International Congress on Cell Biology
Dhaka, Aug.
1st, 2008. The 9th International Congress on Cell Biology (ICCB) will be
held October 7 through 10th, 2008 at
COEX, Seoul, Korea. The Korean Society for Molecular & Cellular
Biology and the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network are
holding their 20th and the 11th Annual Conference jointly with ICCB. The
deadline for submission of abstracts is 31st of August.
Click here to read the whole program>>>
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Future of Biotechnology in
Bangladesh
Austin, April 10, '08. On the occasion of Plant Tissue Cult. Biotech
conference starting tomorrow the 11th, an article captioned, "Future of
Biotechnology in Bangladesh" has been generated compiling important
information from the birth of the Bangladesh Association for Plant Tissue
Culture to its present status. It will be highly appreciated if Forum
members or anyone interested in the promotion and development of
biotechnology make comments adding, modifying or making suggestions for
further strengthening our endeavor to build better Bangladesh through the
application of this mind boggling science of the 21st Century.
24th Annual Conference of Bangladesh
Society of Microbiologists (BSM)
Dhaka,
31st of May, ’08. The
24th BSM
Annual Conference will be held on
Saturday, the 28 June, ’08 at the BCSIR Auditorium, Dhaka campus. The
theme of the conference is “Microbes in Food and Environment”. The
technical session of the conference will cover topics on various aspects
of Microbiology. The deadline for submission of abstracts, not exceeding
200 words to the Organizing
Secretary is June 15. Participants
intending to present a paper at the technical session may kindly note that
the maximum time allowed to an individual speaker is 10 minutes.
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BABGE’s
First International Conference in Dhaka in June 7-8
Austin,
April 29, 2008.
Bangladesh Association for Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering
(BABGE) is organizing an
Intl. Conference June 7-8 at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council
(BARC) premises. Besides a good turnout of
local scientists, there has been a good response to the conference
call and guest scientists from Pakistan
, India , Malaysia,
Philippines,
USA, Australia,
Japan, Italy are expected
to enrich the deliberations of the conference. GNOBB wish the conference
all round success. For details click
here.
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Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Conference Concludes
Austin
April 13, '08.
After three days of deliberations, the
BAPTC&B organized Conference on Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology
concluded on a note on confidence that the objective of the Association to
harness the fruits of biotechnology is on its way to fulfillment, at the
same time realizing that there is a long way to go before the dream of the
biotech community is fully realized. Considering the short time, the
Association had at its disposal to organize the conference, it was a big
success. Thanks to Prof. M. Imdadul Hoque and Prof. Rakha Hari Sarker (DU)
and their associates. Never before the Association was fortunate to have
four NRB's available to enrich the PTC&B deliberations of which two
were plenary lectures. Please click
here
to see the report of the Organizing Secretary, Professor M. Imdadul Hoque
on the conference. To see the list of award winners for top four poster
presentations click here.
The second prize went to Bose Institute, Kolkata, while the remaining were
shared by the Dhaka University- (first prize), DU- and Islamic University,
Kusthia students (third prize), respectively. GNOBB want to express their
gratefulness to Dr. Abul Hussam for providing funds making it possible to
award the prizes. The recommendations of the conference will be posted
here as soon as they are available. Let us work together united to
implement the resolutions adopted to build up better Bangladesh. View
Photo of the inauguration by clicking
here. See also the April issue SABP
Newsletter.
[Pl. read
comments from one young scientist from Bose Istitute, Calcutta
about the conference.]
__________________________________________
Proceedings
of the Intl. Jute Symp. held in Calcutta are available now
Austin
March
19, ’08.
Proceedings of the
Intl. Symposium on Jute and Allied Fibers: Agriculture, Utilization and
Marketing held in Kolkata January 9-12 have just been published by its
organizers. Among the recommendations, the panelists recommended with one
voice that the erstwhile International Jute Organization (IJO) should be
revived forthwith to regain confidence of jute importing countries and
providing them with quality diversified-jute-products. A program need to
be worked out to balance supply and demand of jute and allied fibers and
their products by integrating different stakeholders: production,
processing, marketing and consumers as an end-to-end system. Standards for
quality assessment of diversified jute products like geo-textiles, other
technical textiles, non-woven etc. in relation to their end use need to be
clearly defined and strictly adhered to for satisfying the international
market. An international initiative for jute genome research needs to be
initiated immediately with the objective of quality improvement including
conservation, characterization and genotyping, involving all countries
where jute genomic research is carried out. Read the two relevant
documents in PDF format by clicking here
for Proceedings and here
for Jute Genomics.
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First
Day of the Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Conference
Austin 11th April, '08. The
BAPTC&B organized Conference on Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology
was held as per schedule in the Department of Botany,
Dhaka
University
. The conference drew an impressive gathering comprising delegates and
intellectuals from major public and private educational and research
institutions of the country as well as distinguished NRB's from
Australia
,
Japan
and
USA
. Former Chief Plant Biotechnologist & Rice Breeder, IRRI, Professor
Swapan Kumar Datta, credited for evolving indica version
of Golden rice as well as a few other scientists from India also
graced the occasion. The conference was inaugurated by Professor Nazrul
Islam, Chairman, The University
Grants Commission. The conference highlights were three plenary
lectures: Professor Abed Chaudhury, an NRB from CSIRO, Australia spoke on,
"Plant Breeding Systems for Increasing
Agricultural Productivity." The topic
of
the first plenary lecture by Dr. Zaheed Husain at the Immune Disease Institute, Harvard Medical
School was on, “Molecular Targeting and Drug
Discovery in the post-Genomic Era”, while that of the third
plenary by Dr.
M. C. Kharkwal at the Indian Agricultural Res. Institute
was on, “Mutation Breeding and Food
Security: Achievements and Prospects.” The new concept and
strategy elaborated by Dr. Chaudhury
for increasing agricultural productivity provided food for thought.
The first scientific session on, “Production and conservation of
medicinal, horticultural, ornamental timber and other cash crops through
in vitro techniques” was chaired by Professor T. B. Jha of the
Presidency
College
, Kolkata. The poster session covering a wide variety of areas of biotechnology was
inaugurated by Professor Ahmed Azad, an NRB from Australia. The names of the prize owners will be announced
on the concluding day, the 13th of April.
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Ultra-Fast
Genomics Conference in Dubai December 8-10
Austin
April 04, '08. Sponsored jointly
by Ultra-Fast
Genomics and the J. of Biotechnology (Elsevier), A conference
in Dubai will be held December 8-10 under the title, "Ultra Fast
Genomics: Techniques, Informatics and Discovery." The invited
speakers are: Philippe
Bucher, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Swiss Institute for
Experimental Cancer Research. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, Roger Bumgarn
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