Panjwani Center acquired latest technique to research killer diseases
The Nobel Prize winning technique used by pharmaceutical giants now available to Pakistani scientists

Karachi, Feb 28: A Nobel Prize winning technique is available first time to Pakistani scientists to research possible cure for diabetes, depression and some other killer diseases.

Dr Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research of the Karachi University has established the first “Patch Clamping” lab to facilitate research in neurodegenerative diseases. The technique was developed by two German scientists, who received Nobel Prize in 1991 for this work.

Patch clamp technique is used for drug effect against a series of diseases and finds out the mechanism of diseases in animals and plants both. It is also most useful in finding out compound and drug designs and pharmaceutical giants like Merck Pfizer and others used this technique for their drugs before bringing them for clinical trial.

“The patch-clamp technique measures the electric current of a living cell which is generated due to the movement of ions through the protein channels present in the cell membrane and influences the function of all cells in an organism,” explained Dr. Wayne Ouyang from the Cornell University who was in Karachi to assemble and demonstrate the Patch Clamp machines.

Dr. Ouyang who came as a consultant of ALA Scientific Instruments Inc, the New York based company that supplied equipments for the new research facility, was talking at a dinner on Wednesday night given in his honor at a local hotel by Dr. Iqbal Choudhary, the Acting Director of the Panjwani Center.

“We are now at par with the scientific world and our scientists will no more be handicapped in their quest for new knowledge for lack of equipments especially in areas of bio-sciences and medicines,” said Dr Choudhary, a leading scientist who has won three top civilian awards, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and Hilal-e-Imtiaz for his scientific research work.

Dr. Kaneez Fatima Shad, HEC foreign faculty professor and an Australian expert of Patch Clamp technique, is the end user for the new facility at the Panjwani Center and will help and train researchers to use the new technique.

“We will use Patch Clamp amplifier for the interaction of drugs and chemicals at the molecular level with the cells. It will be useful for neurodegenerative diseases like epilepsy, Parkinson and Alzheimer diseases,” said Professor Shad who has 16 years experience in patch clamp technique and in Germany she has also visited the patch clamp labs of Professor  Neher, the inventor and the Nobel Prize winner.