Excellence of work, PU created Pakistan’s own Coronavirus vaccine.
A team of Punjab University scientists headed by Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology’s Prof Dr Muhammad Idrees has developed a corona vaccine in a very low price to test on suspected Corona virus patients and the cost of one vaccine has not been decided as first they are going to test it. according to media reports today at 31 March 2021 on Wednesday that vaccines are now created by PU and they were going to test it on any suspected corona patient for better results to know.
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The vaccine trials will be done in coming two months. The report says that the geans were sent to china for the tests which came after four months and then they have computationally design it and then validation is done with computer soft wares. As per reports Prof Dr Muhammad Idrees, a renowned virologist and former vice chancellor of University of Hazara, said that development of the vaccine was not a big job for a scientist however now the government would be able to get vaccines from its own department.
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The doctor there claims that they wanted their vaccine to get approved by government and specified for further trials just how china’s vaccine were approved.. In this case, tests of Corona virus suspects’ free-of-cost will be conducted and check the newly made corona vaccines on people. So that relief could be given to the people at large. He said that this was the role of universities to resolve the problems being faced by the society and country and PU would play its role to cope with this menace in this critical time as well.
Prof. Idrees obtained his Ph. D. in Molecular Biology/Virology and then worked for his post-doctoral research at Division of Viral Hepatitis, Coordinating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta USA. As recognition of tremendous contribution in the field of Molecular Biology/Virology, The Royal College of Pathologists London-UK awarded him with Fellowship of the College in 2015 on the recommendation of Exam Committee and College Council. He has also B.Ed. to his credit from University of Peshawar. Dr. Idrees currently holds a senior faculty position of Professor at CEMB, and have been associated with CEMB and CAMB, University of the Punjab for the last 20-years. During this period, he had been Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Senior Research Officer and Research Officer. He had also the distinction to serve CAMB, University of the Punjab as a Professor and Director (on deputation) till July 27, 2016 when he assumed the charge of permanent Vice Chancellor of Hazara University on July 28, 2016 and successfully completed his tenure on July 28, 2019. Dr. Idrees current scientific and clinical interests encompass basic and applied research utilizing modern molecular based techniques. He had established a state-of-the-art Molecular Virology Division in a public sector university.
Dr. Idrees have more than 20 years of progressive experience in academics, research, administration, and financial management. His contribution to molecular biology has been recognized at home and abroad and his research work has been published in more than 200 research papers in national and international impact factor scientific journals with an overall impact factor more than 450 and of citation of more than 4,800. He is the editor of several Internal Scientific Journals. He has capabilities for mobilization of financial resources from National and International funding agencies. He has executed major research projects and has been the principal and co-principal investigator of several research projects funded by national and international funding agencies of worth of more than Rs. 2’000.00 million. And now with the grace of Almighty, he created a vaccine for Pakistan.
He had set up a source of income for CAMB and earned revenue of more than 500 million, as a part of this rare enterprise to develop indigenous technologies. Dr. Idrees developed Molecular Diagnostic Vaccines for the detection of HBV, HCV, M. tuberculosis, Dengue, HCV Genotyping and most recently for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus causing COVID-19 at 1/10th the cost of the same vaccines manufactured by other companies in Europe and America. Due to vital importance of viral testing, as gesture of noble consent, his team has conducted more than 40,000 PCR tests free of charges to the poor patients identified for hepatitis treatment across the country under the PM’s Program for Prevention & Control of Hepatitis. The market value of these tests is more than 113.00 million.
He has documented experience of restructuring of existing organizations. In year 2015, he along with other prominent scientists developed an excellent teaching and research programmes in Applied Molecular Biology & Forensic Sciences for which, he has been internationally acclaimed as an eminent Molecular Biologist. In addition, ten modern and market oriented academic disciplines were approved and launched at Hazara University on his personal efforts and under his direct supervision. He is the recipient of several national and international awards most importantly “Best Young Scientist of the Year Award in Biology” in year 2009 by. He has also received, “Research Productivity Awards consecutively from 2011 through 2017 from Pakistan Council for Science & Technology (PCST) for his excellent performance in the field of Molecular Biology & Virology. Bravo to him! We can now understand how he has contributed so much creating vaccines for Pakistan.
Before the vaccine the PU has also launched diagnosis kits for Pakistan as we all know which costs very low. Now according to media reports today at 31 March 2021 on Wednesday that vaccines are now created by PU and they were going to test it on any suspected corona patient for better results to know. The vaccine trials will be done in coming two months. The report says that the geans were sent to china for the tests which came after four months and then they have computationally design it and then validation is done with computer soft wares.
Prof Idress said that they started working on the vaccine in January and now finally PU has created vaccines and they were going to make it at much cheaper costs. The vaccine was initially used to check for COVID-19 at the university. It used real time PCR-based method to detect infection and cost $5, much cheaper than the one announced by National University of Science and Technology at almost $20.
