KU holds lecture on mental disorders

KARACHI: A Pakistani professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, has developed a biomarker for early diagnosis of stroke.

University of Technology Sydney in Australia’s  Neuroscience Professor Dr Kaneez Fatima Shad informed an academic audience that her group has developed a biomarker for the early diagnosis of stroke, an official of the University of Karachi said here on Sunday.

She delivered a lecture on ‘Why Brain? Why Advocacy? Setting the future for Neuroscience with peripheral markers of mental disorders in Pakistan’.

This lecture was organised by University of Karachi’s Biochemistry Department’s Professor Dr Viqar Sultana.

Dr Fatima Shad did her PhD in 1994 in Neuroscience from the University of New South Wales, Australia and post doctoral studies from Medical College of Pennsylvania, USA. Her area of research interest is to find biological markers for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and stroke.

She has more than 30 years’ experience in teaching physiology, neurophysiology and other medical sciences in different universities of Australia, UAE, USA, Bahrain, Brunei and Pakistan.

She has published 56 peer-reviewed papers, edited three books and wrote three book chapters and 95 international peer-reviewed conference abstracts.

Many factors including stress, noise and carbon monoxide pollution are responsible for common neurological, neuropsychological and psychiatric disorders in Pakistan.

Dr Fatima gave many examples as peripheral markers of such diseases for example generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a precursor of atherosclerosis leading to ischemic stroke.

She advised practising caloric restriction so their energy producing machine (mitochondria) will produce less ROS.

She said that currently, there is no biomarker available for the early diagnosis of stroke. Specific enzyme serine racemase in the blood can be used as a peripheral marker for neuronal hyper activities and D-serine concentration is an important determinant for stroke.

Her group in Australia has developed certain biochemical method for the early diagnosis of stroke, as to identify the people who are prone to have a stroke in future.

The early diagnosis will save the patients from the onset of stroke.

The lecture was attended by a large number of faculty members and research students from the Faculty of Science, University of Karachi.