QAU’s Young Scientist(Dr. Sikander Azam) Raising Millions For Research Amidst Difficult Circumstances

While Pakistan’s top varsity continues to struggle to manage its deficit and desperately needed development funds from the Government of Pakistan continue to be delayed, its young faculty are blazing new trails and competing successfully at the national and international levels to bring in desperately needed resources. To take just two noteworthy examples: Dr. Rabaab Zahra (Microbiology) and Dr. Syed Sikander Azam (Bioinformatics). 


Dr. Syed Sikander Azam secured the Ernst Mach Follow-up Grant: Ernst Mach Follow Up Grant (EZA) from *Austrian* Science Foundation in 2015 (*3750 Euros*), *US$ 15,0000* grant from International Foundation for Science ( *Sweden*) for Exploring the Effectiveness Of Natural Products against Druggable Targets from Pathogenic Bacterial Genomes, Projects on Molecular
Dynamics Simulation Studies of alpha-glucosidase from HEC, Pakistan.*(1.999 million PKR)* and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Studies of Caspase from HEC, Pakistan.*(2.219 million PKR)*, in addition to the Start-up Facility for Computational Studies of Tyrosinase Inhibitors” by startup grant from Higher Education Commission, Pakistan *(0.5* *million PKR). *


It is almost entirely due to the efforts of faculty members like Dr. Rabaab Zahra and Dr. Sikander Azam that QAU, in spite of a recurring deficit of Rs. 500 million, limited development support from the Government, and severe infrastructural constraints, which leave the University with little to invest in its own research programs, is still competing successfully against better-funded national and international HEIs.

We are very proud to announce Dr. Amir Ali Abbasi invited as a speaker to a international 2016 Big Data Forum in Life and Health Sciences (December 5-8, 2016)Beijing , China

Zahida Perveen (PhD Scholar) successfully defended her doctoral thesis

Zahida Perveen defended her doctoral thesis on “Involvement of cytoplasmic dyenin light chainin apoptotic process: a differential gene expression study using in vivo and in silico approaches” on 29 January 2016. All members of the department were invited to join the defense. Dr. Asma Gul and Dr. Jamil Ahmed were external examiners in the PhD Committee.

Main focus of her work was differential gene expression analysis using mouse as model with relevance to infertility. Because of 90% similarity between mouse and human genome, she was confident to add value, by sharing her expertise gained in this aspect to treat this common problem.

During the course of her PhD studies in QAU, she published 6 papers in peer reviewed journals. Her PhD was sponsored by HEC indigenous scholarship program and she also visited Queensland institute of Medical Research Australia for carrying six month research under International Research Support Initiative Program (IRSIP).

Prof. Amer A. Beg from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Centre expressed comments on her thesis as follows:

“Ms. Parveen presents an impressive body of work that more than meets the requirement for a PhD degree. The results, discussion and figures are also well presented and of high quality”.

We congratulate Ms. Zahida and wish her full success in her career!

Nousheen Bibi (PhD Scholar) successfully defended her doctoral thesis

On Friday, 29 January 2016, Nousheen Bibi (PhD Scholar) successfully defended her doctoral thesis on “Determination of novel substrate candidates for protein kinases to explore their functional implications in cancer therapeutics”.

The Thesis Jury comprised of:

Dr. Asma Gul and Dr. Jamil Ahmed (External evaluators)

Dr. Sajid Rashid (Supervisor, Associate Professor and Chairman, NCB)

Dr. Amir Ali Abbasi (Internal examiners, Associate Professor, NCB)

Dr. Sikander-e-Azam (Internal examiners, Assistant Professor, NCB)

 

Nousheen Bibi completed main work in Functional Informatics Lab, National Center for Bioinformatics under the supervision of Dr. Sajid Rashid, while she spent a collaborative six month work period in Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Edinburg.

Nousheen received excellent comments from foreign thesis evaluators. Prof. Dr. Gerhard Ecker from Duquesne University wrote that:

“The overall quality of thesis is excellent and is comparable to the thesis and dissertation of PhD students in Chemistry & Biochemistry at Duquesne University. The thesis is well structured and the references are up to date. With this work, Ms Nousheen Bibi presents excellent scientific contribution to the field of polo like kinases. The thesis is methodologically sound and the results are presented in proper form and discussion is appropriately addressing all aspects.”

 

Prof. Jeffry D. Madura from Duquesne University commented that:

“I found the thesis to be well written and scientifically interesting. Ms N. Bibi has brought together both experimental and computational tools to identify novel substrates for protein kinases with respect to cancer. Thesis is an outstanding contribution to the scientific field and find that thesis meets even surpasses the requirements of QAU for a PhD.”

Congratulations Nousheen! We look forward to continuing our successful collaboration in the future. 

Dr. Sajid Rashid Appointed as NCB’s New Chairperson

Dr. Sajid Rashid assumed the charge of Chairperson, National Center for Bioinformatics on November 13 2015 following his promotion as Associate Professor. He is one of the founders of NCB and he previously served as Head of Department for four years.

He will serve a five-year term of Chairperson starting in November 2015.

Dr. Syed Sikander Azam is awarded (RPA) by (PCST) for year 2015.

NCB is pleased to announce that Dr. Syed Sikander Azam  is awarded Research Productivity Award (RPA) by Pakistan Council of Science and Technology (PCST) under Category B for the year 2015.

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