- 5-day workshop providing hands-on training on CRISPR
- Professional candidates from various scientific institutes, educational institutes
Candidates getting hand-on training on CRISPR experimental design in the workshop arranged by Bangladesh Society of Microbiologists (BSM) recently. Photo: Courtesy
Bangladesh Society of Microbiologists (BSM) arranged a comprehensive 5-day workshop providing hands-on training on CRISPR experimental design to 20 candidates in the first phase of the workshop spanning from May 5 to May 9, 2024.
The candidates were all professionals from various prestigious scientific institutes and educational institutes like National Institute of Biotechnology (NIB), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute (BORI), Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, University of Chittagong, various departments of the University of Dhaka like clinical pharmacology, pharmacy, microbiology, genetic engineering and biotechnology, zoology etc.
The range and sectors of the candidates tell us a lot about the expansion of the popularity of CRISPR and the endless possibilities of its applications.
Organizing committee for the workshop Professor Dr Munawar Sultana and her team at BSM have partnered with Associate Professor Dr Tahmina Islam from the Department of Botany at the University of Dhaka to organize and facilitate this workshop.
Among the first to introduce CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology to Bangladesh, Dr Tahmina Islam is a trailblazer.
Dr Tahmina Islam graduated and post-graduated from the Department of Botany, University of Dhaka and completed PhD on field of biotechnology and molecular biology before joining as a lecturer.
Her post-doctoral research at University of Kiel and Leibniz University Hannover, Germany was based on CRISPR-Cas genome editing technology where she amassed valuable resources regarding the knowledge and tactics of CRISPR experimental designs.
Her research now completely focuses on deriving novel edited genotypes of various economical species such as Rice, Jute, Mustard, Potato and Tomato by implementing CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology.
As such, she directly led the workshop as the soul resource person conducting the hands-on experiments from her laboratory, the Plant Breeding Biotechnology Laboratory of Department of Botany, University of Dhaka.
CRISPR within such a short period of time has become such a desirable technology that commercially, biotech and genetic engineering-based corporations have moulded their marketing and production to suit the needs of researchers aiding CRISPR-based projects.
Even so, the experimental design of CRISPR requires tremendous amount of brainstorming and manual work involving disciplines like bioinformatics and molecular biology.
As the workshop by BSM is one of the very firsts providing hands-on experience, the workflow was intricately designed to fit the necessary requirements to kick-start a CRISPR experiment.
As resource, Dr Islam provided detailed training on in-silico analysis necessary for the experiment, laboratory facilities and equipment required for molecular vector construction via cloning experiments. The workshop trained everyone by providing them lecture based and experiment-based trainings, equipping them with enough knowledge to carry out their own CRISPR-Cas genome editing projects.
A lecture by Professor Dr Zeba Islam Seraj of Dhaka University’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology entitled CRISPR_Cas9 as a quick tool for non-GM crop improvement kicked off the training day as a Resource speaker.
The intensive schedule of the workshop culminated in success within the 5-day timeframe without any notable hassle and with much positive approach from each of the candidates.
As a resource speaker on the final day, Professor Dr Rakha Hari Sarker emphasized the ethical approach and legislative perspectives on dealing with GMO and genome modified crops.
President of BSM, and senior scientist of icddr,b, Dr Munirul Alam, general secretary of BSM and professor of Microbiology in the University of Dhaka, Dr Muhammad Manjurul Karim, and Joint secretary of BSM and Professor of Microbiology in University of Dhaka, Dr Munawar Sultana led the operation into success by gathering such an enthusiastic lot from various corners of the country.
The participants were very appreciative and enthusiastic, and they praised the organizers for organizing such a thorough training.
At the closing ceremony for the workshop on May 9, 20204. President of BSM Dr Munirul Alam highlighted their vision and goals as to why arranging a workshop on CRISPR based genome editing was such a huge demand of time.
The society’s General Secretary, Professor Manjurul Karim, spoke highly of the importance of these workshops and their intentions to host further advanced training. Along with the workshop’s attendees, he expressed gratitude to the Department of Botany for hosting it and to everyone else who had a hand in making it a success.
Each of the candidates received their respective certificates on successful completion of their hands-on comprehensive training on CRISPR gene editing from the organizing team of BSM.
CRISPR is the future and not only just a glorious present. Our entire existence faces crisis as the global scenario regarding climate, economy and industry changes due course.
Our scientific sectors cannot keep up with the growing change, and with it we also face inevitable danger if we fail to adapt to sustainable development.
In the past, we relied on the natural course of evolution and waited thousands of years to mitigate a climatic or biological crisis.
But rapid industrialization of today caused the earth to decline so much in health that, we can no longer afford to rely on natural courses of action to mitigate climate change situations or biological crises.
Hence due to how harmless and easy to handle CRISPR-based tech is, it is indeed our go-to.
CRISPR has already shown promising results in creating novel resilient biotech products, and appliable human medicine, consumables. To pull us out from the pit hole of third-world country problems regarding growing climate and health crisis, implementing CRISPR in every laboratory of the nation has become rudimentary. For the sake of ourselves, and for the sake of the future generation as well.