Foreign Faculty Appointments by HEC (2003–2011)

Dr. Sajida Hassan

1 October 2004 – 15 October 2010 · Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

A research scientist with more than sixteen years of laboratory experience spanning molecular and cell biology, neuroscience, microbiology, immunology, gene expression and regulation, signal transduction, gene silencing, infectious disease and cancer biology, alongside project management, grant and manuscript writing, and graduate-level teaching.

Her technical specialties include Biosafety Level II/III work under GLP and cGMP practices; cloning and site-directed mutagenesis; DNA sequencing and computer analysis; stable and transient transfection; CAT reporter assays; immunohistochemistry, ELISA and FACS; mouse brain micro-dissection; siRNA-based gene silencing; PCR and RT-PCR; DNA, RNA and protein isolation; Southern, Northern and Western blotting; genomic mapping and foot-printing; nuclear extract isolation and gel-shift assays; hepatitis C virus culture and patient sample handling; cDNA synthesis; and DNA microarray technology across cDNA, Affymetrix, Agilent and Illumina platforms, with familiarity in DNA methylation, gene editing and next-generation sequencing.

Ishrat Waheed, PhD

17 January 2005 – 31 August 2006 · Saba University School of Medicine

Dr. Waheed holds a doctorate in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with research fellowships at the US National Institutes of Health and the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, Canada, plus medical-education and academic-management certificates from Penn State, Stanford and Harvard Universities. She has more than twenty-five years of experience as an educator, researcher, consultant and administrator across North America, Asia and the Caribbean.

Before joining Saba, she held senior academic and administrative posts at several institutions, teaching biochemistry, molecular cell biology, genetics, pharmacology, immunology and virology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and has served as a consultant and advisor to various international organisations. Her research interests include cancer vaccines, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, allergic asthma and infectious inflammatory disorders; she has mentored more than twenty MS/PhD scholars, published in high-ranking journals, presented at major medical conferences, and served on the editorial boards of numerous medical research journals.

Dr. Fridoon Jawad Ahmad

4 February 2005 – 30 June 2006 · Professor & Head, Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Health Sciences

Prof. Ahmad earned his PhD in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, followed by research positions at Northwestern University and Drexel University. His research interests include stem-cell-based therapy for damaged organs and the biology of cell architecture and force generation, and he authored a contribution to the Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (Macmillan Publishers).

Dr. Mohammad Ishtiaq Qadri

8 September 2006 – 25 April 2007 · Professor & Head, Medical Biotechnology, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University

Dr. Qadri's research addresses viral hepatitis and associated liver cancer, along with cellular adaptive responses and hepatic gene regulation in insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis and type-2 diabetes in the context of viral infection.

He has received more than 28 international research grants from funders including the US National Institutes of Health, the American Liver Foundation and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, supporting work on viral gene regulation and replication across hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis E, herpes simplex virus, human cytomegalovirus, Epstein–Barr virus and dengue virus.

Dr. Gulzar Ahmed NiaziLate

23 May 2006 – 30 June 2011

Dr. Muhammad Sarwar

10 July 2006 – 9 July 2007