Prof Dr Joachim Herzig addresses SSUET seminar on Biomechanics of Contractile Proteins

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

 The Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET), Karachi, organized a highly informative workshop and seminar on the topic of ‘Biomechanics of Contractile Proteins’ recently.

On the occasion Prof Dr Joachim W Herzig, the visiting scholar from Germany, gave a detail presentation on the topic which continued for about two and a half hours. The session was attended by the faculty members of biomedical department of the SSUET, experts and students. 

Prof Dr Joachim, who is also a consultant to a number of pharmaceuticals companies on biology and human science, is acclaimed as an international authority in his field and advisor to number of Universities and research institutions. 

Focusing on the theories of motion among humans and animals, Prof Joachim analyzed bioinformatics predominantly focusing on three types of large data sets available in molecular biology, macro molecular structures, genome sequence and result of functional genomics experiments. 

In his presentation he compared genomics of humans and animals. He gave an overview of muscular movement, muscular structure and functions. In this regard he cited examples to show how mosquitoes fly using his wings, which are functions of his body organs which expands and contracts.

He showed that a normal mosquito wings stretches 200 times per second and that makes mosquitoes to fly. In this regard he quoted an example of human body that needs proteins and dissolve into energy for motion in the body. 

He cited the example of how a man stretches his arms and what chemical reaction takes place inside the body. He took names of number of agents and re-agents that help in dissolving proteins and calcium in human plasma that enables a man to move. 

Dr Joachim pointed out that it is an extraordinary field of human research and all major pharmaceutical companies are concentrating on producing medicines and chemicals that can help human body to do work and move. He quoted human hearts which, he said, contracts and expands as an example of myosine and proteins. 

He said that upon expansion, human heart receives blood and on contraction it circulates blood in human body. The tissues of heart are made to function like this with the help of myosine, calcium and protein. He invited researchers from Universities and institution to focus in this area of human bodies functioning, its longevity and age and observed that perhaps quality of life is likely to improve to a great extent. 

He is currently on a visit to Karachi for about a month and his lecture/talks in many Universities are available on web and anyone interested can download and start further research in this area that has great potential.

Dr Joachim also answered to a number of question raised by participants and students of bio-medical. He thanked Chancellor Engr Mohammed Adil Usman, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Jawaid H. Rizvi of SSUET for inviting him to this largest private sector university. 

The guests on the occasion included Dr Shahida Qaiser, currently working as Managing Director of a pharmaceutical firm and Mr Pervez Hayat Noon, who is highly educated widely travelled and currently holding a reputed pharmaceutical company in Pakistan. 

Earlier, the SSUET Registrar, Engr Abrar Ali, gave a thorough introduction about SSUET and said that it presently has over 5500 students on its roll studying in the disciplines of Computer, Electronics, Bio-Medical, Civil, Telecom Engineering and Computer Science. 

On the occasion the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor presented bouquets to the visiting professor from Germany. 

Research opportunities at the interface if bio medicine and engineering include cell/tissue engineering use of bio materials, clinical and medical instrumentation, physiological modeling, bio-nanotechnology, cellular biomechanics, neural engineering, engineering biophysics, a number of discoveries at brain computer interface and controlled drug delivery system. The field of Bioinformatics is multi-disciplinary. With informatics providing enormous computing powers to the bioscience processes, bioscience firms are readily allowing the expansion in their IT infrastructure for R & D operations.