Pakistan’s first clinical transplant immunology lab opens in Karachi

KARACHI: Pakistan’s first clinical transplant immunology laboratory aimed to bring advancement in the field of transplant sciences was inaugurated at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT).

Professor Medhat Askar who is an internationally acclaimed transplant immunologist inaugurated the newly set up laboratory, said the SIUT officials. The new facility will focus on the subject of tissue typing, detection of antibodies, transplant of highly sensitised incompatible transplants thereby helping those patients whose transplant is often not possible, a local news outlet reported.

Professor Medhat is the Director of Transplant Immunology Center at the Baylor University of Dallas-Texas.

Earlier, Prof Askar spoke at the reference held to pay homage to Dr Qasim Mehdi of SIUT. The lecture, titled ‘Two birds with one stone’ discussed emerging trends in the field of transplantation. It was followed by a question-answer session.

The founder Director of SIUT Professor Adib Rizvi recalled Dr Mehdi’s services during his stay at SIUT. He pointed out that he was a prominent member of World Human Genome project of the region who performed pioneering work on evolutionary genetics in Pakistan.