University of Haripur Wins First HEC-NRUP Research Project Worth Rs. 18.39 Million
Dr. Muhammad Jahangir (PI), Assistant Professor of Food Sciences (Department of Agriculture) and Dr. Abdul Matin (Co-PI), Associate Professor of MLT department has won HEC-NRUP research project of worth Rs: 18.39 million. This project is focused on Alzheimer disease to screen a big number of Pakistani medicinal plants for acetylcholine esterase inhibitory activity, for natural drug development.
Haripur, Pakistan, August 18, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Dr. Muhammad Jahangir (PI), Assistant Professor of Food Sciences (Department of Agriculture) and Dr. Abdul Matin (Co-PI), Associate Professor of MLT department has won HEC-NRUP research project of worth Rs: 18.39 million. This project is a joint venture on Alzheimer disease which is mainly focused on screening of almost 200 Pakistani medicinal plants for acetylcholine esterase inhibitory activity and their in vitro certification using Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells (HBMEC). It is worth mentioning that Dr. Matin is one of those few researchers in the world having the expertise of Human Brain Cell isolation, culturing and characterization. Therefore establishment of the same facility at University of Haripur is also part of this project. This project will lead us to the development of nature based drug to treat Alzheimer's and other brain diseases. Congratulations to them and UoH family for this marvelous achievement.
Biography of PI and Co-PI
Curing Alzheimer disease through phytochemcials
Muhammad Jahangir, Dr.
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Muhammad Jahangir did his PhD and Postdoctoral research from Leiden University, The Netherlands, under the auspicious supervision of Prof. Dr. Robert Verpoorte. Dr. Muhammad Jahangir is always been interested in food science, nutrition, phytochemistry, natural phytochemical mechanisms and natural drug discovery. He has professional strength in various chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques, including HPLC and NMR. During his Postdoctoral research, he investigated honey from Ziziphus jujube origin, metabolomic variation in Adhatoda vasica, bioactivities of natural compounds (for acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity, CB1 receptor binding and others). Furthermore, Dr. Muhammad Jahangir is interested to use metabolomic approach to study the complex food matrix and human biological material to identify correlations as biomarkers for diseases or disease resistance (functional nutrimetabolomics), with possible applications in life science.
Co-Principal Investigator:
Dr. Abdul Matin received his PhD from Birkbeck, University of London and Postdoctoral Fellowship from School of Medicine, Southampton University Hospital, Southampton, United Kingdom. Dr. Matin’s long-standing research interests include epidemiology and pathogenic mechanism of emerging parasitic diseases with special interest on role of Blood-Brain Barrier in Central Nervous System infections. In this context Dr. Matin was recognized as “The Best Researcher in the UK specialty award and prize” by Medical Research Society (MRS), for his outstanding contribution in Human Brain Research in 2007 at Royal College of Physicians, London, UK and published his findings in an American Journal of having Impact Factor: 17. Using multi-disciplinary approach he is looking for potential novel synthesized compounds or nanoparticles or/and obtained from plants or insects to discover potential drug candidates for drug delivery system to alleviate the burden of life threatening infections. He is conducting research using state-of-the-art technologies in the field of infectious diseases.