Title: Accelerated molecular dynamics simulation, functional sequence space clustering and experimentally guided machine learning as an integrated tool for the customization of enzyme performance for defined industrial applications

Abstract:

Enzymes play an important role in a wide range of industries, such as food and feed, agriculture, personal care, textiles, laundry detergents, fine chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Some examples where enzymes are crucial include cheese manufacture, beer and winemaking, baking bread, fruit juice extraction and clarification, leather tanning and more recently in the production of biofuels and biopolymers^1,2. Further, due to their high enantio- and regio-selectivity, leading to higher yields of the required enantiomer, enzymes are increasingly used in fine chemical synthesis and in the production of chiral pharmaceutical intermediates and APIs.

The enzymes used for various industrial applications can be harvested from microbial sources or they can be customized for a defined industrial application and overexpressed in heterologous hosts such as bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi. This type of enzyme engineering is a powerful way to obtain large amounts of a customized enzyme to replace traditional chemical processes³.

The enormous progress made in recent years in this area is based on new approaches for the screening and identification of novel enzymes, on the development of various protein engineering methods to tailor enzymes with the defined or novel properties, and on the availability of sequence and structural data on a wide range of enzymes that give rise to powerful new machine learning approaches. One recently developed technology making an important contribution to the discovery of novel proteins and engineering of customised enzymes for defined industrial applications involves the application of a proprietary enzyme design platform overcoming key efficiency bottlenecks in statistical structure-dynamics analysis⁴ and enabling the streamlined functional clustering of protein sequence space. This powerful technique allows the fast and reliable identification and subsequent engineering of hotspots in a protein, resulting in a rapid and inexpensive improvement of enzyme properties, such as chirality, catalytic activity, stability, substrate specificity, stereoselectivity. Further, this technology can apply a function to sequences during enzyme discovery, thereby enabling the identification of protein homologues with potentially better properties than the target enzyme and provides outstanding opportunities for the selection and subsequent design of industrial enzymes with the desired properties. This presentation seeks to provide a description of this enzyme design technology in the discovery and design of customized enzymes.

Biography:

Henryk Kalisz obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Manchester University, has published over 60 papers in reputed scientific journals. He has over 30 years of experience in industrial enzymology and biotechnology. After his Ph.D., he worked as a postdoctorate at the University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, before taking up a senior scientist role at the National Research Institute (Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung) in Braunschweig, Germany. He subsequently worked as Head of Biochemistry at Pharmacia, Nerviano, Italy, and as Chief Scientific Officer at Eucodis Bioscience in Vienna, Austria. Since October 2011 he has been applying his expertise in industrial enzymology as a consultant and independent representative to provide scientific and technological advice and assistance to various Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals organizations.

Title: Descriptive Surveillance of brucellosis in small ruminants of district Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract:

Utilization of plant-based medications for treating different diseases and individual health dates to the prehistoric ages. Plants and plant-based medicines are the premises of many advanced pharmaceuticals. In this research, the antibacterial properties of Slender Dwarf Morning – Glory (Evolvulus alsinoides) were assessed. 100 blood samples were collected, and Staphylococcus aureus was isolated and was confirmed by the biochemical tests. Synthetic antibiotic Vancomycin was applied to check the antibacterial activity through MSSA. Molecular characterization was done by conserved sequences (16S rRNA gene) using Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus integrated plasmid, pUR3912, strain ST398 primer. Antioxidant activity, Biochemical testing, Phytochemical analysis (“X-ray diffraction (XRD)” and “Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)” were used for better understanding and confirmation of phytochemical compounds extracted from Evolvulus alsinoides. Results showed that Methanolic plant extract has a clear antibacterial effect against Methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. Antioxidant activity of the methanolic extract was also proved by DPPH antioxidant assay via TLC.

Biography:

Hafiz Zaid Mahmood is a Microbiologist by profession and works with different food industries in the Quality Department in Pakistan. He holds a B.Sc.(Hons) in Microbiology and currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Molecular Biology at the Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Virtual University of Pakistan. Hafiz Zaid has more than 5 years of working experience and leading in QA/QC Department of different Food and Packaging industries. He has also participated and presented his research in an international workshop on “technological, biochemical, microbiological, sensorial and manufacturing aspects of Groundwater and Mineral water” at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, 2106. He is Pursuing his career in the food industry and is passionate about working in renowned research institutes.

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Title: Seroprevalence of Bluetongue virus originating among camels from southern Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract:

Bluetongue (BT), caused by bluetongue virus (BTV) is a vector-borne disease of small ruminants such as sheep, goat and also persist in camels. Bluetongue (BT) disease has a prospective to spread across borders. In spite of a large number of populations of susceptible animals and borders with BTV endemic countries, scant is known of disease implication and prevalent serotype in southern Punjab province in Pakistan. We escort a cross-sectional study to determine the seroprevalence of bluetongue virus in selected districts of southern Punjab using a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA). Sera (n = 992) were collected from clinically healthy and non-healthy camels originating from the districts of Bahawalpur (n = 30), Dera Ghazi Khan (n = 207), Multan (n = 100), Muzaffargarh (n = 17), Rahim Yar Khan (n = 255), Rajanpur (n = 152), Taunsa (n = 231). At the individual level, the overall prevalence of BTV was 68% (n = 697/992, 95% CI = 33.11- 38.72%). A higher percentage of seroprevalence was seen in district Muzaffargarh 100% (n = 17/17). Odd ratios of seroprevalence for camels were associated with age type (ᵡ² = 139.59, p = .00), body condition (ᵡ² = 40.61, p = .00), breed (ᵡ² = 19.61, p = .00), feeding status (ᵡ² = 7.96, p = 0.19), farming status (ᵡ² = 24.49, p = .00), Education status (ᵡ² = 11.68, p = .00), pregnancy status (ᵡ² = 21.80, p .00). All the risk factors were significant and contribute towards the presence of BT disease. To the best of our knowledge, this study that has been conducted in southern Punjab province and the results of this study designate to instigate intrusion strategies to control the BT disease burden but not only in the area of Pakistan but also in neighboring countries to whom Pakistan share his border India, Iran, Afghanistan.

Biography:

 I am Fariha Altaaf young researcher in the field of Microbiology belongs to Pakistan. I have a passion and learn new expertise in evaluation in improving health and wellbeing. I am very passionate and hardworking to create new pathways for improving healthcare. I have done this research and built this model after years of experience in microbiology research, evaluation, teaching, and administration both from hospital and education institutions. The methodology in this research includes competitive ELISA that illustrates, seroprevalence and association of risk factors. It allows for value-pluralism. This research along with this methodology reveals the presence of BT virus that is transmitted from one region to another and still transmitting. I have done research in bacteriology section that was a project work on Streptococcus pneumoniae from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). I am very hard working and keen on my fieldwork. In my future, I would like to be work as Microbiologist definitely.

Title: Metagenomics and Molecular Typing of Mosquito-borne Flavivirus in the selected districts of Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract:

 Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals capable of transmitting the various pathogenic diseases to humans as well as animals. The present study was designed to identify the major species of mosquitoes, prevalent in three districts of Punjab representing the three agro-geo climatic zones viz; Multan, Chakwal and Jhang. Mosquitoes were stereoscopically identified followed by RNA extraction and multiplex RT-PCR. After RNA quantification, molecular characterization of the prevalent mosquito-borne viruses was performed through cDNA synthesis, multiplex RT-PCR followed by agarose gel electrophoresis of the PCR products. It was identified that 4334 (40.6%), 2242 (30%), 2040 (31.6%) were females out of total 10675, 7296 and 6450 mosquitoes collected from districts Chakwal, Jhang and Multan, respectively. It was concluded that, Culex species were present in abundance (73.2%) as compared to the Aedes species (26.7%) in the selected study districts. The multiplex PCR detected Dengue virus (DENV -1 and DENV-2), West Nile Virus (WNV), Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) and Saint Louis Encephalitis Virus (SLEV) in the mosquitoes of all the three selected districts; however, the prevalence of mosquito-borne viruses insignificantly varied (P>0.05) among the three districts. In District Chakwal, SLE was found to be most abundant (13.7%, p=0.12) followed in order by WNV (13%, p=0.17), DENV (8.4%, p=0.91) and JEV (7.8%, p=Ref value), respectively. Similarly, in district Jhang, SLE was found to most prevalent (18.9%, p=0.015), followed by WNV (17.5%, p=0.013), JEV (8.1%, p=0.118) and DENV (4%, p= Ref value). However, in district Multan. WNV was found to be in abundance (27.5%, p=0.005) followed in order by SLE (11.5%, p=0.303), DENV (13%, p=0.199) and JEV (5.7%, p= Ref value). This study has provided a better understanding of the prevailing mosquito and mosquito-borne viruses in the study districts which can help to formulate appropriate control measures.

Biography:

Umar Khalid is currently a Ph.D. scholar with Seven years of experience at hand. Excellent clinical and quality control laboratory skills, with commended performance in conducting laboratory assays and resolving complex clinical and instrumental problems. Accurate, reliable, diligent and focused on the timely, quality completion of all lab procedures. Work well under pressure and time constraints within high-volume environments. Always seeking challenging opportunities to demonstrate my skills and abilities and attain experience and more and more knowledge.

Title: Bringing phage biology out-of-the shadow and into the bedside: when will modern medicine use this ally virus in the battle against superbugs

Abstract:

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global crisis that threatens a century of progress in medicine, with alarming levels of resistance being reported by countries of all income levels. The spread of AMR organisms results in common diseases becoming untreatable, and lifesaving medical procedures riskier to perform.  Healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) carry the highest-burden compared to all other infectious diseases including HIV, tuberculosis, and influenza.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result of it. Although bacteriophage (‘phage’) therapy was discovered about a century ago, the advancement of antibiotics left this forgotten cure to be well-studied only behind the “iron curtains” of the former Soviet Union. The George Eliava Institute physicians have been treating Georgians and patients from other countries successfully for decades.  Even though AMR bacterial infections are of great concern globally, it wasn’t until 2016 that the first American patient received intravenous phage therapy in American soil. After approved for an emergency investigational new drug (eIND) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), doctors from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) were allowed to inject trillions of live viruses (‘phage’)  in a comatose patient who suffered from pancreatitis caused by one of the worst “superbugs”: Acinetobacter baumannii. Facing life-threatening sepsis, breathing with the help of a ventilator, this patient started to go into multiple organ failure. His multidrug-resistant bacteria was not responding to any antibiotic including colistin until his life-saving phage therapy infusion. Since then, this “alternative cure” is getting more attention and other successful compassionate-use cases in the U.S. followed, opening the doors for phage therapy again.  Recently, the U.S.  started its first clinical trials using phage therapy to treat AMR urinary tract infection caused by E. coli. Phage therapy has demonstrated its potential use in combination with antibiotics, eliciting the mechanism of synergy, allowing antibiotics to work again. Phage therapy allows for personalized medicine and specifically targets the microorganism causing the infection, leaving the good microbiome untouched. In times of this in which we live amidst the biggest pandemic of human history, it is important to look at evolutionary biology and how “mother-nature” controls its biosphere. These phages are not only efficient in treating bacterial infections, but it can be used to address the use of antibiotics in livestock and pesticides in agriculture. Phage biology is an understudied tool that allows for the development of rapid-test diagnosis, recombination, cloning, development of vaccine platform, environmental bioremediation, phage-based gene therapy among other possibilities in humans, and veterinarian medicine.

Biography:

Andrea Borns, microbiologist and respiratory therapist who holds a Master’s of Public Health is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of ZEN Clinical & Bioscience. ZEN is a newly-formed consulting and laboratory client-driven research and development (R&D) company in the field of bacteriophage therapy and phage biotechnology to address emerging infectious and neglected tropical diseases. Originally from Brazil, Andrea started her career in Biomedical Sciences and was involved in HIV/AIDS research during the late ’90s in Rio de Janeiro. She is also a former Assistant Professor and Director of Clinical Education at the University of the District of Columbia, USA, where she worked closely with lung diseases, critical care, and mechanical ventilation before her comeback to the bench. Working on the bedside managing and treating cystic fibrosis and ventilator-associated pneumonia patients who lost their lives to superbugs, inspire her to leave Academia and the hospital environment to work in basic science. Andrea worked as a microbiologist at American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and the Biodefense & Emerging Infection Resource (BEI), and as a research technician at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). Passionate about basic science, Andrea is interested in bringing the knowledge of phage biology from the bench to the bedside so it can benefit patients.

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