KARACHI - International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) University of Karachi signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China on Friday.

As per the MoU, Chinese and Pakistani institutions aim to recognise their complementary strengths in the fields of life sciences, and wish to strengthen their relationship for the benefit of their students and researchers. The MoU was signed by Director BIG – CAS Dr Yongbiao Xue and Director ICCBS-UoK Prof Dr M Iqbal Choudhary.

In a meeting held at Dr Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD), KU in which the six-member Chinese delegation was welcomed by ICCBS Acting Director Prof Dr Shaiq Ali and other ICCBS officials.

On the occasion, Dr Changqing Zeng, Dr Songnian Hu, Dr Yiming Bao, Dr Zhang Zhang, Dr Jiayan Wu, and other ICCBS officials were also present. In the meeting Dr Yongbiao Xue and Prof Shaiq Ali discussed issues of mutual interest. They stressed the need to have mutual research work in the field of life sciences. Dr Hina Siddiqui also gave a thorough introduction of the international center in a power point presentation.

According to MoU, both the parties will endeavor to encourage, promote, and facilitate the collaboration between both the institutions.

In particular, the parties have agreed to develop their collaborative work by facilitating exchanges of academic staff and students, hosting the other Party’s academic staff and students as departmental visitors, fostering Bioinformatics and Big Data union/network in Asia, exchanging relevant non-confidential publications, exploring opportunities for collaborating on funded research programs, exchanging relevant non-confidential materials, subject to appropriate agreements, inviting the other party to attend relevant conferences.