Working on an innovative research

Dr Niyaz Ahmed, Head of Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics in School of Life Sciences at the University of Hyderabad, received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for the year 2016.

“I am very happy and this award validates my research, confirming that I have made a pivotal contribution. This was my specialisation since the beginning. I was trained as a microbiologist. While studying, I was interested in infectious diseases, among humans and animals. So, I went on to target some of the very dangerous diseases, like tuberculosis and another gastric infection, called helicobacter pylori infection. Such researches need many experiments. I invested nearly 15 years conducting these experiments,” says Dr Niyaz Ahmed.

Talking about the monetary help that he has received from different institutions, Dr Ahmed says, “I have been very fortunate that most of my researches were funded by the Government of India. The maximum funding that I received was from the department of Biotechnology. I was also funded by University of Malaya of Malaysia and the German research foundation under the International Research Training Groups. University of Hyderabad also helped me a lot. Had the university not supported me, I wouldn’t have won this award,” he admits.

Dr Niyaz Ahmed, who joined the UoH as a faculty in the year 2008, has worked in this field tirelessly for the past 15 years. “I started this work as a single person at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, where I used to work as a scientist for 10 years. The dimensions of that institute is very limited, as it only provides services for the forensic analysis and expert analysis. Hence, in 2008, I joined the University of Hyderabad as a faculty member. I took many enthusiastic PhD students in my first batch who were motivated to do the research work.  I have trained 12 PhD students. We have been working very hard and our lab functions throughout the day. My journey has never been alone.”

Talking about how this award will help him, he adds, “The panel that reviews your work has to give a unanimous decision on who should win the award. Even if one panellist thinks that the candidate does not deserve the award, then they wouldn’t go ahead with it. So, not only has this award given me recognition, it has also motivated me and my team to work these extra hours. It will also help me with my future funding.”

Dr Ahmed has previously received the National Biosciences Award in 2013. He has also received the University of Hyderabad Chancellor’s Award in the year 2015 and is the fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry — UK.

Talking about his future researches, Dr Ahmed says, “As a part of this programme on infectious diseases, we have identified some of the novel proteins of the pathogens that can serve as either the diagnostic marker, vaccine candidate or the drug.  My team and I plan to work on that.”