Islamabad:  Prof. Dr. Walid Houry, Professor, Departments of Biochemistry and Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Canada visited COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) on December 1, 2022 under OIC-COMSTECH distinguished scholar program. Ms. Maham Yamin, Program Officer, COMSTECH also accompanied him. The purpose of the visit was to explore opportunities of academic and research partnership between two universities.

Mr. Ali Tawab Baloch, Head, International Office, CUI welcomed Prof. Houry and was given tour of the campus. He visited Centre for Micro and Nano Devices (CMND). At CMND, Dr. Faisal Nasim, Chief Scientific Officer briefed about CMND’s scope, facilities which cover fabrication and characterization aspects and areas of research, which cover scientific and engineering aspects. The delegation visited Junaid Zaidi Central Library. Mr. Abdul Rehman, Senior Librarian briefed about library’s facilities, physical resources and digital platforms available for the students and faculty members of CUI. The delegation was shown different facilities and labs of Biosciences Department.

During the formal meeting with the delegation, the Head, International Office gave detailed presentation about COMSATS University’s history, rankings, achievements, development plans, academic programs and spoke about its research centers as well. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Nawaz Shafqat, Chairperson Biosciences gave brief presentation of Department of Biosciences. The Chairperson covered specialty-wise distribution of existing faculty, enrolments in PhD, MS and BS programs for the last seven years and research grants, patents & publication for the last five years of the department. Prof. Dr. Qaiser Fatmi joined the meeting in his capacity as the Professor and HoD of Biosciences.

Prof. Dr. Sana Sabahat, Head Department of Chemistry also gave presentation of the Department. Dr. Sana highlighted that this newly-formed Department is equipped with research laboratories and foreign qualified PhD faculty members are conducting cutting edge research in different domains and fields of Chemistry. The Department is offering graduate programs and from Spring 2023, undergraduate programs will be offered. She presented Departmental activities and expressed Department’s interest for collaboration, research projects and student exchange programs with the University of Toronto.

Prof. Houry briefed the counterparts about Departments of Biochemistry as well as Department of Chemistry programs, research projects and laboratory facilities separately. He revealed that there are three main projects in the laboratory of Departments of Biochemistry of Faculty of Medicine: R2TP chaperone complex, Clp proteolytic system and mapping the chaperone interaction network. These projects deal with the common theme of cellular stress response. They are interested in developing compounds that target protein homeostasis and that can be used as anti-cancers or antibacterial.

Prof. Houry called on Prof. Dr. Muhammad T. Afzal, Rector, CUI and areas of mutual interests were discussed. Souvenir was presented to the guest with a click of photo.