KARACHI: Alumni of Dow Graduates in North America (Class 1995) has announced to offer scholarships to medical graduates (MBBS/BDS) for pursuing MPhil and PhD research programme in molecular medicine. However, Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), University of Karachi (UoK) has also offered special internship programme for medical graduates and students.
Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Director – International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi (UoK), said this while speaking at the certificate distributing ceremony of the 10th Summer Internship Program-2017 held at the at Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), UoK here on Thursday.
On the occasion, scientists from Dr. Panjwani Center, including Associate Professor Dr. Asmat Salim, Dr. Shabana Usman Simjee and Dr. Sadia Aijaz were also present.
Prof. Iqbal Choudhary said that Pakistan was in dire need of having a research culture to understand diseases at the molecular level. We need to promote research culture among the medical graduates, he said and adding that Dr. Masroor Ahmed of Methodist Hospital, North America had recently visited PCMD, and announced that the alumni of Dow graduates would issue scholarships to the medical graduates.
The association between medial graduates and MPhil and PhD-level research is the need of the hour that will make us understand the concrete reasons lying behind the spread of various diseases like hepatitis viral in the country, he said, adding that around 7.7 percent of hepatitis cases are positive in Pakistan, which is quite high in the world. He said that major objective of this special internship programme was to provide medical graduates an opportunity to be involved in research activities at the molecular and cellular levels.
Earlier, Dr. Asmat Salim said that this short exposure to original research at the international center was really a major attempt to generate research interest in the medical graduates.