Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PJBMB) founded by the Pakistan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PSBMB). PJBMB is Higher Education Commission (HEC) recognized and indexed peer review journal which publishes high quality orginal research in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and related areas. The journal also publishes short reviews and parpers solicited by the editorial board.
A manuscript submitted for publication implies that the work described has not been published before (except as an abstract or a published lecture, review or thesis). At the time of its submission to PJBMB it should neither be under consideration for publication elsewhere nor will it be reproduced after its publication in any other journal. Any co-authors must have agreed with the contents of the publication including the institution where the work was carried out. All authors should have agreed to automatic transfer of copyright to the Editor-in-Chief.
The Pakistan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was founded in 1963 with the name as Pakistan Society of Biochemists. Prof. M.I.D. Chughtai and Prof. M. Ataur Rehman were its founding President and Secretary, respectively. Initial name of the Society was changed to the current one in the year 1997 in line with the international trends. Ever since its establishment the Society has been working to promote the sciences of biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology in the country. With the growth of scientific activities in general, the activity in biochemical sciences has also grown with increased number of scientists working in this field in the country.
The Society holds its biennial science conferences at different major venues of the country. These conferences are well attended by the scientists from all over the country and from abroad. The Society also supports symposia, seminars and other events organized by the individual institutions and is represented on the international fora like the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) and the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists (FAOBMB). The Society publishes Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology a quarterly research journal.
Message on 50th Anniversary of PJBMB:
It is matter of great pleasure and satisfaction that the Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PJBMB), one of the pioneer scientific journal published in Pakistan, has now reached the landmark of publication of its 50th volume. The first volume of the Journal, a publication of the Pakistan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PSBMB), was published in 1967 as Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry, with Prof. M.I.D. Chughtai and Prof. M. Ataur Rehman as its founding editor and co-editor, respectively. In line with the international trends the journal was renamed as PJBMB in 1995, when the Society was also renamed from Pakistan Society of Biochemists to PSBMB. Initially the journal was published biannualy, each volume consisting of two issues. Due to rise in the number of quality paper submissions the frequency of publication was increased to four quarterly issues per volume.
With the rapid advances and deeper understanding of the biological processes at molecular level and their vast applications in the recent years, importance of the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology and the related areas is being realized ever more. We have seen the vast gains made in the areas like DNA sequencing, protein engineering, regulation through RNA interference, cell signaling, protein-protein interactions, stem cell technology, microarray technologies, bioinformatics tools and many other areas. It has become possible to sequence, using the next generation technologies, the whole genome of any living being in a matter of days at a fraction of the costs spent on the previously used sequencing protocols. The avalanche of completely sequenced genomes of species, from bacterium to human, and the advanced bioinformatics tools for data handling have added new dimensions to not only the use of genome sequence analysis in predicting structures and assigning functions to the unknown proteins but also to understand the bases of diseases and thus find their cures. The development in the methodologies and the tools for creating new protein molecules through mutations in the genes encoding the protein, by mimicking the natural evolutionary processes, has made it possible to create molecules with vastly improved properties for medical, agricultural, industrial, environmental and other applications. More recently the discovery of CRISPR-Cas system and its refinement for use in genome editing has created possibility of unlimited applications based on deletion, addition or modification of genomic DNA with great precision.
In this scenario of the expanding research and development activity all over, including Pakistan, the role of a journal like PJBMB has become more important in dissemination of the new knowledge. The Journal has been published online regularly and the quality of the research papers has also improved. We are confident that with the efforts of the current editorial team and the contribution and support of the scientists within Pakistan and abroad the Journal shall continue to make progress to become one of the top-ranked journals in the field of life sciences.
Prof. M. Waheed Akhtar,
Secretary General,
Pakistan Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
School of Biological Sciences, University of the Punjab,
Lahore Pakistan
