Faculty history
Past professors and researchers whose work shaped CEMB’s research programme across four decades.
Professor & Founding Director 12 June 1984 – 9 June 2009
CEMB's founding director, who established the Centre in 1984 after returning to Pakistan from postdoctoral research in the UK, Sweden and the USA, and built its molecular biology programme through collaborations with leading international laboratories.
Read his full legacyProfessor 1 July 1990 – 16 August 2010
Dr. Khan's research career began in 1970 with an M.Sc thesis on the morphogenesis of erythrocytes in Rana cyanophlyctis, comparing normal metamorphosis with thyroxin- and radiation-induced metamorphosis — work that produced six publications, first position in her M.Sc, and merit scholarships from matriculation onward. From 1974 to 1981 she worked on breast cancer and lymphomas at the Ontario Cancer Research Institute in Toronto, Canada. She then trained in microbiology at the Toronto Institute of Medical Technology before joining a clinical pathology laboratory in Karachi in 1981, and in 1987 joined the National Health Research Complex at Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, where she studied inherited metabolic disorders and published a further six papers.
She joined CAMB in 1990 to begin a molecular biology research programme centred on the genetic basis of inherited disorders, starting with beta-thalassaemia, Pakistan's most prevalent haemoglobin disorder — publishing the country's first paper on its molecular genetic diagnosis. Over her career she molecularly characterised alpha- and beta-thalassaemia, reporting 22 beta-thalassaemia mutations (including three rare mutations not previously reported in Asian populations) and three alpha-thalassaemia mutations, with frequencies mapped across six of Pakistan's major ethnic and linguistic groups. She also identified three beta-globin chain haemoglobin variants and one rare alpha-2-globin chain variant (Hb Sallanches), and reported that alpha-gene deletions and Xmn1 polymorphism produce milder thalassaemia phenotypes.
She contributed to an IAEA-sponsored multi-centre study spanning Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Syria, Cyprus and India that developed a simplified ARMS-PCR molecular diagnostic strategy for thalassaemia, and used these findings to develop prenatal-diagnosis procedures. With encouragement from founding director Prof. S. Riazuddin, this programme was later extended to other genetic diseases, including polycystic kidney disease and hereditary hearing and vision impairment.
Professor 13 March 1985 – 30 January 2020
Over 35 years at CEMB, Prof. Hussnain combined institutional leadership with research in gene editing and plant transformation, serving as Director and leading a team of more than 300 researchers and students.
He led development of Pakistan's first double-gene insect-resistant transgenic cotton varieties (CEMB 33, CA12, CEMB-66) and its first triple-gene insect- and herbicide-resistant varieties (CKC-1, CKC-3), alongside transgenic cotton lines with improved fibre quality — work that was patented and commercialised.
His tenure as Director is credited with roughly 765 publications and 13 patents from the Centre, and his own contributions to Pakistan's cotton biotechnology were recognised with the Izaz-i-Fazeelat (2005), the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (2008), and a national innovation award (2017) for multigenic cotton development.
Professor 28 April 1991 – 23 September 2021
Across three decades at CEMB, Dr. Nasir worked on strategy and programme development for agricultural research with national impact, translating research priorities into operational programmes intended to strengthen Pakistan's agricultural sector.
Professor 31 May 1988 – 3 April 2022
Prof. Shahid served CEMB for over 34 years, including more than two years as Director, and led the Plant Molecular Biology, Biosafety and DNA Forensic groups for two decades while overseeing the Centre's M.Phil and PhD programmes for a decade — under his leadership, biosafety studies were completed for all of CEMB's Bt cotton varieties.
He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology at CEMB itself, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Nottingham (UK) on abscission-related genes in Arabidopsis, and a research stint at University College London studying phytotoxic compounds from the chickpea fungus Ascochyta rabiei.
He mentored more than 30 PhD scholars, two postdoctoral researchers and around 100 M.Phil students, publishing roughly 200 international and 31 national papers. He now serves as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Information Technology at Sahara University, Narowal.
Now: Dean, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Sahara University, Narowal
Associate Professor 4 December 1986 – 14 August 2019
Over 34 years at CEMB, Dr. Zafar built functional laboratories for the upstream and downstream processing of recombinant human proteins, and trained internationally — including hormonal-studies work at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, laparoscopic embryo-transfer training at Malaysia's MARDI institute, recombinant biopharmaceuticals and bioassay work at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Italy, and a biopesticide research exchange at Nanjing Agriculture University, China.
Now: Associate Professor, Qarshi University, Lahore
Qarshi University profile
Assistant Professor 10 December 1986 – 1 November 2013
Dr. Rahman established CEMB's Forensic Research Lab in 1995, pioneering HLA typing and STR analysis at the Centre — work that was first presented as evidence in a Pakistani court of law in October 2001. He also researched metal-binding proteins and contributed to synthesising genes for pharmaceutical proteins such as interferon and erythropoietin.
He chaired CEMB's Academic Committee from 2011 to 2013, supervised 22 M.Phil and 6 PhD students during his tenure, and published 31 international papers. He is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Punjab.
Now: Assistant Professor, University of Central Punjab
University of Central Punjab profile
Assistant Professor (TTS)
Dr. Naeem earned his PhD in Molecular Biology at CEMB and led the Vision Impairment Lab within the Genetic Diseases Research Lab, as Principal Investigator of the HEC NRPU project on the molecular basis of retinitis pigmentosa, combining linkage analysis with next-generation sequencing.
His group processed DNA from 154 consanguineous Pakistani families affected by retinitis pigmentosa and congenital cataract, trained two PhD students in genome-wide scan and exome analysis, and published 36 manuscripts in international peer-reviewed journals, collaborating with the National Eye Institute (USA) and the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
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