Daily Times

As a newly appearing infectious disease, COVID-19 garnered great research interest. According to a recent report at least 54 academic papers about COVID-19 were published in English-language journals by Jan 30, 2020. As of Feb 3, 2020, just 23 Chinese-language papers on COVID-19 were published. These publications mainly focused on epidemiology, clinical features of COVID-19, and the structure or genetics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Advantages of research extend beyond having an impressive degree/certificate. Through detailed research, students develop critical thinking expertise, as well as effective analytical, research, and communication skills that are globally sought-after and are incredibly beneficial. Ultimately, research is essential to economic and social development of our globalized society, forming the foundations governmental policies around the world. Undoubtedly, research is the most important tool to investigate the problems of the people.

It is an uphill task to contain the spread of virus since it is going to take at least 12 to 18 months to ensure the availability of the vaccine on a large scale

Pakistan has 177 universities with more than 12,000 PhD faculty producing approximately 1500 PhD scholars every year, excellent statistics for a developing country but where is research in this hour of need? The country is momentarily struggling to combat the deadly COVID-19 which is infecting people of all ages.

It is an uphill task to contain the spread of virus since it is going to take at least 12 to 18 months to ensure the availability of the vaccine on a large scale. All that we can do is to focus our efforts on early detection of infected patients, rapidly tracing all their contacts, and isolating them as soon as possible. An even more dangerous aspect is that it has the potential to mutate and transform into an aerial borne variety, which will be a huge global disaster. For which, quality research is highly important.

The research being conducted in different universities lacks quality. Researchers are more concerned with the number of their publications rather than the quality of their research. Students are trained to get good grades; whereas they should be introduced to scientific research. According to Pervez Hoodbhoy, various incentives including foreign scholarships, faculty hiring, TTS, and Domestic PhD programs led to the plethora of low-quality research that people only want to get promoted.

However, the first National Center for Virology is being recently established as a part of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Karachi, in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and three German institutions, Eberhard Karls-University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen University, and Medidiagnost. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the most powerful scientific organization in China, and it is the leading centre for virus research in China. The International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences now houses some 17 buildings spread over about 70 acres of land with some 600 students enrolled for Ph.D. It has been globally awarded many international prizes and awards and is now the UNESCO Center of Excellence, providing training to many scientists from other countries, including Germany.

Notably, the Vice-Chancellor of University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore had formed four working groups when the Coronavirus pandemic started becoming serious and shortage of personal hygiene items and shortage of ventilators started becoming an issue all over the world.

Three teams from Mechatronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering departments are working on the design and prototyping of cost effective ventilators. They have submitted proposals for funding through HEC’s RAPID Research and Innovation Proposals as well as PM Task Force on Knowledge Economy invitation for proposals under Indigenously Developed Ventilators for Prototype Testing

Moreover, Chinese Kunming University of Science and Technology and University of Health Sciences Lahore (UHS) has announced to set up a hospital in Lahore for prevention from corona and conducting research on this deadly virus in this regard they also constituted a joint research group. The Chinese university will also donate corona test kits, masks and gloves to Pakistan.

A delegation of Chinese Kunming University of Science and Technology will be visiting Lahore next week. For this purpose, Chinese Kunming University of Science and Technology will establish a hospital at Kala Shah Kaku Campus of University of Health Sciences (UHS). Chinese delegation will visit UHS Lahore next week and collaborate with UHS doctors on various matters regarding types of coronavirus; prevention from corona; medicines to prevent corona and research on the virus.Chinese university’s doctors will also ensure complete guidance to Pakistani doctors regarding treatment of corona patients in Punjab.

In addition to this, NUST to establish cheaper coronavirus diagnostic KITS, scientists at NUST Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB) have successfully established Molecular Diagnostic Assays for the detection of Novel Coronavirus, in collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology China, DZIF Germany, Columbia University USA and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Rawalpindi. The assays include both conventional and real time PCR-based methods of Sybr Green and Taqman. The testing kits have been efficiently tested on laboratory controls and patient sample.

These indigenously established testing kits are robust, sensitive to the target, and would soon be available at 1/4th the price of imported ones.

In a recent development, Punjab University scientists developed low-price kit for Coronavirus diagnosis. Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology’s Prof Dr Muhammad Idrees has developed a low-price diagnostic kit to test suspected Corona virus patients and the cost of one test would be around 5 US dollars or Rs 800 only. He asserted that the laboratory where the test of Corona virus suspect was being conducted should match BSL 3 standard so that lab staff and others could not be affected and spread of virus could be controlled. He said that on availability of some basic ingredients, the team could develop thousands of kits within a week for the government.

Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad said PU CEMB would conduct tests of Coronavirus suspects free-of-cost in order to provide relief to the masses. He asserted that this was the duty of educational institutes 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. Moreover, VC instructed the relevant officials to make necessary arrangements for online classes of the students; in this regard many departments have started Virtual Classes and are getting excellent feedback on the effectiveness and efficiency of these virtual classes. He said that since the country was battling the menace of Coronavirus, we should not compromise on education of our graduates and develop alternative ways to deliver lectures to the students.

Despite the amazing transformation of higher education sector of Pakistan over the years in terms of improvement in infrastructure and growing numbers of PhDs, one of the big questions is whether there are opportunities and environment for researchers and scientists to make a real difference by resolving genuine problems of Pakistan. The other questions are related to creation of new knowledge, enough number of researchers, adequate well equipped research labs, think-tanks and significant achievements in science and technology.

The whole debate revolves around the big question, i.e., whether our universities are acting as catalysts for change by improving the socio-economic and political landscape of Pakistan, the first nuclear power in the Muslim world. Pakistani universities should work as research centers because research output is closely linked with development and prosperity which would help the country is overcoming the challenges and crisis. This is also in line with the HEC’s mission of facilitating the ‘institutions of higher learning to serve as an engine of socio-economic development of Pakistan.’