President Approves New Science Foundation Chairman’s Appointment

President Dr Arif Alvi Monday Approved Appointment Of Dr Muhammad Idris As New Pakistan Science Foundation Chairman

President Approves New Science Foundation Chairman’s Appointment
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Idrees

President Dr Arif Alvi Monday Approved Appointment Of Dr Muhammad Idris As New Pakistan Science Foundation Chairman, a brief statement issued by the President’s Media Wing here said.

Dr. Idrees obtained Ph. D. in Molecular Biology/Virology. He worked for his post-doctoral research at Division of Viral Hepatitis, Coordinating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta USA. As recognition of tremendous contribution in the field of Molecular Biology/Virology, The Royal College of Pathologists London-UK awarded him with Fellowship of the College in 2015. Dr. Idrees currently holds a senior faculty position of Associate Professor at CEMB, and have been associated with CEMB and CAMB, University of the Punjab for the last 20-years. During this period, he had been Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Senior Research Officer and Research Officer. He had also the distinction to serve CAMB, University of the Punjab as a Professor and Director (on deputation) till July 27, 2016 when he assumed the charge of permanent Vice Chancellor of Hazara University on July 28, 2016 and successfully completed his tenure on July 28, 2019. Dr. Idrees current scientific and clinical interests encompass basic and applied research utilizing modern molecular based techniques. He had established a state-of-the-art Molecular Virology Division in a public sector university.
At the start of his career, he had established PCR-based Diagnostic Lab for the detection of infectious diseases at CAMB MoST and facilitated general public with reliable, accurate, rapid and more economical diagnostic services for widespread contagious infections and genetic diseases. He had set up a source of income for CAMB and earned revenue of more than 500 million, as a part of this rare enterprise to develop indigenous technologies. Dr. Idrees developed Molecular Diagnostic Kits for the detection of HBV, HCV, M. tuberculosis, Dengue and HCV Genotyping at 1/10th the cost of the same kits manufactured by other companies in Europe and America. This helped to overcome inherent constraints of practicing modern molecular tools for diseases diagnosis and encouraged/contributed to the indigenous technologies in the area of Molecular diagnostics. Due to vital importance of viral testing, as gesture of noble consent, his team has conducted more than 40,000 PCR tests free of charges to the poor patients identified for hepatitis treatment across the country under the PM’s Program for Prevention & Control of Hepatitis. The market value of these tests is more than 113.00 million. Most recently (2015), Dr. Idrees has developed an excellent teaching and research programme (BS, M. Phil & Ph. D) in Applied Molecular Biology & Forensic Sciences for which, he has been internationally acclaimed as an eminent Molecular Biologist.
Dr. Idrees is a recipient of “TWAS Best Young Scientist of the Year-2009” award, PAS Gold Medal 2016 in scientific discipline “Emerging Technologies’ by Pakistan Academy of Sciences and “Research Productivity Awards” from 2011 to 2015 (continuously) for his excellent performance in the field of Molecular Biology. The learned doctor has also been awarded Certificate of appreciation for excellent lab support in detection of dengue fever cases during the outbreak in the year 2011 and shield for his excellent performance in “Lab Services in Case Detection for Dengue Fever” on February 29, 2012 by WHO.
Dr. Idrees’s team is the first in the country to carry out the pioneering studies on viral hepatitis and he along with his team has been supervising the study of the genome variations in hepatitis viruses and M. tuberculosis. Besides, he supervised 23 PhD & 51 MPhil students and is currently supervising 5 PhD and 2 MPhil research scholars. In addition, he has trained/co-supervised more than 50 research scholars/scientists from other Universities of Pakistan. The groundbreaking contribution of Dr. Idrees in Molecular Biology/Molecular Virology have been appreciated at home and abroad and his research work has been published in 175 peer reviewed research papers in national/international scientific journals with an overall impact factor of more than 271 and citations of over 3’200. He is the editor of several Internal Scientific Journals. He has been the principal/co-principal investigator of several research projects funded by national and international funding agencies, namely Ministry of Science & Technology, HEC, EMRO-WHO and Pak-USA.

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