For the past two decades, Bangladesh Association of Plant Tissue Culture & Biotechnology has been organizing international conferences every three years. These events are very important for Bangladeshi biotechnologists. Around 150 Bangladeshi and foreign biotechnologists gathered at the Department of Botany, University of Dhaka on the occasion of the 8th International Biotechnology Conference from 3-5 December 2016.
From the Biotechnology Program of MNS Department, a team of eight participated in this exciting event where more than 70 papers were presented in six different sessions - ranging from plant tissue culture to transgenic crop production to commercial application of these in vitro methods. BRACU team presented four papers and one poster. One of the papers received the Best Presentation Award and the poster received the Best Poster Award!
Md. Rafid Feisal, Teaching Assistant in the Biotechnology Program presented the best awarded paper entitled “In silico analysis, homology modelling and comparison between salt tolerance determinants Arababidopsis thaliana Na+/H+ exchanger 1 and 2 (AtNHX1 and AtNHX2) proteins”. The Chair of the Session Prof. M. Azizur Rahman of the University of Greenwich, UK highly appreciated the results accomplished during this study and encouraged us to do further studies on this research topic.
Md. Mubassir Rahman and Anamika Datta, a graduate student and a Teaching Assistant of the Biotechnology Program respectively, presented the poster. The title of their poster was “Tissue culture independent transformation of three tomato varieties with AtNHX1, a vacuolar antiporter for salinity tolerance”. Prof. Quazi Abdul Fattah, Vice President of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences and Prof. Abdul Aziz of the Department of Botany, University of Dhaka were Judges of the poster session. Both of them highly praised the work.
Preparation works were successfully carried out at the Department under the supervision Dr. Aparna Islam, an Associate Professor and Coordinator of MS Biotechnology Program at the MNS Department.