International Hands-on Training on CRISPR/Cas-mediated Genome Editing

Description

Organized by Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security (CAS-AFS),
D-8 Research Center for Agriculture and Food Security (D-8 RCAFS)
National Center for Genome Editing (NCGE)
Center of Agriculture Biochemistry and Biotechnology (CABB)
University of Agriculture Faisalabad.

Event Detail

National Center for Genome Editing

National Center for Genome Edting (NCGE) at CAS-AFS is a collaborative project between UAF and Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The project has been established to fully exploit the potential of genome editing to address emerging challenges to agriculture, food security, and human health. The project aims to mainstream the use of this technology to advance indigenous capacity and unleash related entrepreneurship and services. The project component at UAF is focusing on interventions in four domains i.e., crops, vegetables, fruits, and human health.

Genome Editing

Technologies like CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome edting offer myriad ways to tweak genomes and help scientists to fulfil what they have been wishing for since the advent of molecular biology. The past decade witnessed an enormous adoption of this technology in almost all brances of biology from agriculture to medicine and environment. After successfully deploying gene editing to modify simple traits, scientists are now embarking on more ambitious adventures in genomics to combat challenges of food security in the wake of increasing population and climate change adversaries.

Genome Editing Workshop/Hands-on Training

To mainstream genome editing in biological research, scientists at NCGE (UAF and PCSIR-Lahore) are offering training programs to the professionals of public and private sectors involving agriculture and human health. Two one-week training courses has been held in february 2022 and May 2022 as comprehensive hands-on training progreams for the nominees from public sector universities/Institutes of Pakistan. The programs covered both practical and theoretical aspects of genome editing technology and its applications. Due to overwhelming response and interest among the scientific community across Pakistan, NCGE has committed to making the workshop and its derivatives a permanent feature of its strategic goals. In pursuance of this, an international hands-on training workshop is being held on May-06-11, 2024.

Workshop Objectives

International Hands-on traning on genome editing aims to train young and early career researchers in academia to have a true hands-on experience of practicing basic techniques involved in genome editing experiments. It will:
> provide essential understanding of both theoretical and practical knowledge of genome editing technology
> acquaint researchers about the potential of genome editing tools in different disciplines.
> walk through the basic gene editing workflow practically with their own hands in lab environment
> enable participants to design genome editing experiments in their own research

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