The inaugural ceremony of the COMSTECH\u2013PCMD International Training Course in Virology and Pandemic Preparedness took place at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, marking a major collaborative effort to strengthen regional health security.<\/p>\n
The course is jointly organised by OIC-COMSTECH and The Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research at ICCBS and drew faculty members, vice chancellors, researchers, government officials and heads of scientific organisations from across Pakistan and OIC member states. The programme opened with the national anthem and a recitation from the Holy Quran, followed by a welcome address from Prof. Dr. M. Raza Shah<\/strong>, Director ICCBS and UNESCO Chair on Bioorganic and Natural Products Chemistry, who underlined the centre\u2019s continuing role in fostering research and innovation across the Islamic world.<\/p>\n In his keynote, H.E. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary<\/strong>, Coordinator General of OIC-COMSTECH, stressed the urgent need to strengthen scientific and diagnostic capacities in OIC countries, noting that COVID-19 exposed critical gaps in readiness. He emphasised scientific collaboration, rapid response systems and technology exchange as core elements of effective pandemic response and said ‘through joint research and shared knowledge we can collectively enhance preparedness and response capabilities in health and science.’<\/p>\n Dr. Choudhary outlined COMSTECH\u2019s strategic focus on laboratory alliances, specialised training courses and technology foresight initiatives aimed at building regional resilience. He reiterated COMSTECH\u2019s commitment to empowering young researchers and advancing molecular diagnostics as cornerstones of sustainable pandemic preparedness and longer-term scientific cooperation among OIC members.<\/p>\n Speakers including Ms. Nadira Panjwani<\/strong>, Chairperson of the Dr. Panjwani Memorial Trust, Prof. Dr. Nazli Hossain<\/strong>, Vice Chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences, and Mr. Jamshaid Alam Memon<\/strong>, Special Secretary for Health, Government of Sindh, welcomed the launch of COMSTECH\u2013PCMD as a landmark initiative to promote research excellence, training and innovation in virology and pandemic preparedness across Pakistan and the wider OIC community.<\/p>\n Organisers said the international training course will bring together experts to enhance laboratory skills, diagnostic capacity and cross-border collaboration, strengthening the practical foundations of pandemic preparedness in Pakistan and partner countries. The event signals a proactive step towards a more connected, capable regional scientific network ready to respond to future health emergencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" COMSTECH and PCMD launch an international training course to boost pandemic preparedness and virology capacity across Pakistan and OIC member states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}