Dr. Mohd. Shamim Iqbal, born and brought up in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, is defined by his dynamic and bicontinental career in medical and
biopharmaceutical industries in Bangladesh, Japan and the United Kingdom. Dr.
Iqbal is a Notredamian (#941091) and training for his career in his chosen
fields began with his Bachelor and Masters in “Microbiology” at the University
of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He earned a second Masters with distinction in “Medical
Engineering Sciences”, followed by a PhD with distinction in “Cancer Biology
and Immunohematology’’ from Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine,
Japan, under the prestigious Japanese Government Scholarship, Monbukagakusho.
Following his PhD, he received post-doctoral training as a Visiting Research
Fellow, at the Queen Mary University of London, UK on “Fetal Origin of Human
Diseases” from the Centre for Diabetes, Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular
Science, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He did his
second post-doctoral training on “Mechanisms of Bacterial Drug Resistance” from
the Centre for Food and Water-borne Diseases, icddr,b under the Young Scientist
Award for research. His post-doctoral training also includes “Microdata
Analysis using R and Bioconductor” from the Department of Genetics, Graduate
School of Life Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Dr.
Iqbal’s colorful career began in 2002 at the International Centre for
Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddrb), which is the top research institute
of Bangladesh as well as in the subcontinent. Dr. Iqbal joined icddr,b as a
Senior Research Assistant and later worked as a Research Officer in the Enteric
Microbiology Laboratory. He also worked as an Assistant Scientist in the Center
for Food and Waterborne Diseases (CFWD) icddr,b in 2010. He joined as the lead
scientist of the Cancer Working Group at the Center for Control of Chronic
Diseases (CCCD) of icddr,b in 2013. In 2014, he joined the Nutrition and
Clinical Services Division (NCSD) of icddr,b and in 2016, became an Associate
Scientist. He has also served as an elected member of icddr,b’s most
prestigious Scientific Council. He has published over 25 scientific research
articles in world class international
journals including
Nature Oncogene, BMC Cancer, European Journal of Hematology, British Journal of
Hematology, European Journal of Cancer Prevention, BMC Psychiatry, PLoS One,
Journal of Medical Microbiology, Maternal & Child Nutrition, Food and
Nutrition Bulletin, BMJ Open, Blood and The Lancet. He has presented his work
at many conferences globally, and published more than 50 conference papers in
scientific journals. During his career, he collaborated with many researchers
and physicians in national and international levels including some of the most
famous and iconic individuals in the field. The star-studded names include
Professor Dr. Harrold Eliot Varmus, a famous oncologist and Nobel laureate in
1989. Professor Harrold Varmus was also served as President Barak Obama’s
advisor from 1993 to 1999 as Co-Chair of the Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology and a developmental biologist, Sir Peter David Gluckman, who was the
Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister, from 2009 to 2018 and
the Founding Director of the Liggins Institute. At present he is the President
of International Science Council. In parallel to his research works, Dr. Iqbal
has passion for teaching and served as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the
School of Public Health at Independent University, Bangladesh, which is a top
ranked university of the country and taught “Global Health”, and “Public Health
Nutrition” Courses and prior to this, he taught as an adjunct faculty at James
P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, which is the top Public
Health School in the country and served as a Research Assistant and Teaching
Assistant in Department of Bio-Signal Analysis, Laboratory of Cellular Signal
Analysis of Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan for five
long years. He also acted as guide to many MSc and MPH students also provided
Molecular and Cellular Biology training to research students from home and
abroad.
And
after almost two decades of research and teaching, Dr. Iqbal finally left
icddr,b in February, 2019 and served as the BOD, Managing Director and CEO of
Amulet Pharmaceuticals Limited from March, 2019 to April, 2022. In July, 2019,
he also became the Chairman of Hygeia Technologies Limited. Since leaving
icddr,b, Dr. Iqbal’s focus has shifted to business within the field of his
expertise – health and medicine and in March, 2020, Dr. Iqbal founded Biofiber
International Limited, which is going to be the first international standard
contract research organization (CRO) in Bangladesh and became its founding
Managing Director. As of July, 2022, he is serving as the Chairman, Managing
Director and also the CEO of Biofiber International Limited. From October 1st, 2024, Dr. Iqbal is
serving as an Advisor to Optimum Pharmaceuticals HBL. with especial
focuses on Joint Ventures (JV) and International Sales & Marketing. Dr.
Iqbal is also serving as an Advisor to Biogen Pharmaceuticals Limited.,
Desh Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd. and Quality Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Finally, on a soft note, it is mentionable that
Dr. Iqbal is an over-achiever and is more than just an academician and a researcher.
He is proficient in several languages including English, Hindi and Japanese.
It is also mention worthy that he had been the captain of both the soccer and the cricket team of the department of Microbiology at the University of Dhaka.
Dr. Iqbal is self-confident, hard-working, versatile, optimistic, extrovert, human being with an amicable character and strong ethics. He is 47 years old and
father of two sons. He has passion for family, friends, music, camping and farming. As an over-achiever his achievements, despite his late advent into the realm of
entrepreneurships, promises to be filled with grand successes and Dr. Iqbal
whole-heartedly welcomes Pharmaceuticals, Bio-techs, CROs, Medical Devices and other health and medicine related industries and research organizations and institutions for mutually exclusive collaborations and partnerships from all over the world in the upcoming future for the better welfare of the humanity.