On October 13, 2021, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (TIB-CAS) hosted the COMSATS Joint Center for Industrial Biotechnology (CCIB) Workshop on ‘Technical Innovation in Traditional Plant Medicine’ via online and offline. Prof. Sun Jibin, Deputy Director-General of TIB and Director of CCIB, and Dr. Akhtar Nazir, Executive Director of COMSATS and Federal Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Pakistan attended the meeting and made a speech. Nearly 100 scientists from more than ten COMSATS member states such as China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Egypt, Jamaica and Ghana attended the workshop.
Medicinal plants have been used for thousands of years and are an important source for new drugs discovery. In order to build a platform for the exchange of medicinal plants and further promote the joint research and application of traditional plant medicines, the workshop focused on the new drugs discovery of natural products and the design of biosynthetic pathway, the biomanufacturing of high value-added natural products, and the new application of natural products.
Prof. M. Iqbal Choudhary, the fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), the Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, pointed out in his keynote speech that it is very important to establish an international cooperation network dedicated to traditional medicine science and strengthen collaborative innovation to accelerate the innovation and development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Traditional Unani Medicine (TUM). He proposed that COMSATS members should give full play to their respective advantages, integrate innovative resources, and carry out in-depth cooperation, making traditional plant medicines play a greater role in good health and well-being.
Besides, Prof. Jenis Janar, Director of the Research Center for Medicinal Plants, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU), Prof. Zhou Jingwen, Science Center for Future Foods at Jiangnan University, Prof. Jiang Huifeng and Prof. Wang Meng from TIB introduced their latest research progress in Phytochemical Investigation of Medicinal Plants from Kazakhstan, Discovery of Bioactive Triterpenoids Biosynthetic Pathway in Mushroom, Towards the Customized Production of Flavonoids in Microorganisms, Genome Sequencing and Natural Product Biosynthesis, respectively. After the presentations, participants made in-depth discussions on international cooperation on plant natural products drugs under the framework of the CCIB, and put forward follow-up cooperation plans. This workshop enhanced the mutual understanding among COMSATS network members and laid a good foundation for building the joint research teams to carry out high-level joint R&D and application in plant natural products.
The CCIB is an innovative cooperation platform jointly established by TIB and COMSATS in April 2021 under the framework of the National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology (NC SynBio). It is proposed that a series of workshops on biomedicine, bioagriculture, future food, biomaterials, biochemicals and bioenergy will be organized in the future.
Prof. Sun Jibin made the introductroy remarks ( Image by TIBCAS)
Dr. Akhtar Nazir made the opening remarks ( Image by TIBCAS)
Prof. M. Iqbal Choudhary made the keynote speech ( Image by TIBCAS)
The CCIB Workshop ( Image by TIBCAS)
