Saghir Akhtar is professor of pharmacology in the College of Medicine,

Qatar University Qatar University (; transliterated: Jami'at Qatar) is a public research university located on the northern outskirts of Doha, Qatar. It is the only public university in the country. The university hosts twelve colleges – Arts and Sciences, Bu ...

, and

editor in chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held account ...

of the ''

Journal of Drug Targeting ''Journal of Drug Targeting'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Informa that covers research on all aspects of drug delivery and drug targeting for molecular and macromolecular drugs. The editor in chief is Saghir Akhtar (College ...

''.

Early life and education

Akhtar obtained a First Class honours degree in Pharmacy from the Leicester School of Pharmacy and his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree from the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

Academic career

From 1990-1991, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at UNC Medical School at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He began his independent academic career at

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston'' for post-nominals) is a public university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first College of a ...

, firstly as lecturer from 1991–1997 and then as Reader in Pharmaceutical Sciences (1997–1999). He led a team studying DNA chip technology with a hope of combatting a form of brain cancer known as

glioma A glioma is a type of primary tumor that starts in the glial cells of the brain or spinal cord. They are malignant but some are extremely slow to develop. Gliomas comprise about 30% of all brain and central nervous system tumors and 80% of ...

. In 1997, he was a visiting fellow with Ed Southern in the Department of Biochemistry,

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He later became professor of Drug Delivery in the Welsh School of Pharmacy and Director for the Centre for Genome-based Therapeutics,

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

, UK (2002–2006). More recently he was Professor of Pharmacology at Kuwait University Faculty of Medicine (2007-2017) where he also served as Director of the Graduate program. He is the winner of the Lilly Prize (1996), the Pfizer Academic Award (1997), the British Pharmaceutical Conference Science Medal (1998), the Controlled Release Society (USA) Young Investigator Research Achievement Award (2001) and the Kappa Society Science Award (2005). His current research interests include studying molecular pharmacology and signal transduction pathways involved in

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

and/or hypertension-induced cardiovascular dysfunction, and understanding the biological and pharmaceutical challenges associated with the development of

gene silencing Gene silencing is the regulation of gene expression in a cell to prevent the expression of a certain gene. Gene silencing can occur during either Transcription (genetics), transcription or Translation (biology), translation and is often used in res ...

nucleic acids Nucleic acids are large biomolecules that are crucial in all cells and viruses. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomer components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main classes of nucleic a ...

(

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by ...

siRNA Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded non-coding RNA molecules, typically 20–24 base pairs in length, similar to microRNA (miRNA), and operating within the RN ...

antisense In molecular biology and genetics, the sense of a nucleic acid molecule, particularly of a strand of DNA or RNA, refers to the nature of the roles of the strand and its complement in specifying a sequence of amino acids. Depending on the context, ...

oligonucleotides Oligonucleotides are short DNA or RNA molecules, oligomers, that have a wide range of applications in genetic testing, research, and forensics. Commonly made in the laboratory by solid-phase chemical synthesis, these small fragments of nucleic aci ...

) as potential therapeutic agents; and c) studying the

toxicogenomics Toxicogenomics is a subdiscipline of pharmacology that deals with the collection, interpretation, and storage of information about gene and protein activity within a particular cell or tissue of an organism in response to exposure to toxic substan ...

of novel drugs and non-viral drug delivery systems. Akhtar has also provided health advice for fasting during

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhtar, Saghir Alumni of the University of Bath Academics of Aston University Living people Medical journal editors Year of birth missing (living people) Academic staff of Qatar University