Biography:

Habib Bokhari

PhD in Infection & Immunity, Univ. Glasgow, 2002

(Common-wealth Scholar and Fellow; Fulbright Fellow: Affiliate Faculty, Environmental Biocomplexities, George Mason Univ. USA)

   Habib Bokhari is currently serving as Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Department of Biosciences at Islamabad Campus. He has served CIIT for more than 14 years now. In fact, he was the first PhD faculty member hired by CIIT in Biosciences in 2002-2003.  He is responsible for starting a teaching/research program in the then brand new field of Bioinformatics in Pakistan. He has done 4 Postdocs from well reputed Universities such as Perelman School of Medicine, UPENN, USA and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. He is a recipient of Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship (199-2002; 2013) and Fulbright Fellowship (2016-2017).  He has number of active, national and international collaborations with world’s best Universities such as, National University of Singapore, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, RVIM The Netherlands, George Mason University, USA, Department of Biomedical Engineering Florida International University, Sanger Centre, Hinxton, UK and UPENN, USA.

            His long-term goals are to translate knowledge into product(s)/tools through translational research. More specifically, to increase knowledge of the virulence, transmission and dissemination of mucosal pathogens, understanding the host-pathogen interaction, microbiome in association with disease and health, to develop rapid assays for surveillance of pathogens/toxic materials and vaccines (Glycoengineering) to prevent infectious diseases. His lab uses primarily genetic and molecular techniques to characterize pathogens, study their biofilm formation and drug resistance capabilities as well as interaction with nanomaterials. In the area of Microbial Genomics, He is the first researcher from Pakistan who has been able to complete various whole genome sequence projects including 100 Vibrio cholerae Genome Project from Pakistan. He has identified couple of novel fluorescent proteins (HriCFP & HriGFP) which has commercial value for the scientific community and currently engaged in protein engineering for enhancing their fluorescent properties. Since his joining, He has not only designed and introduced a brand new degree program of “Bioinformatics” but was also key person in setting up and strengthening Department of Biosciences with its state of the art laboratories.  He has supervised and co-supervised numerous undergraduate (50 projects) and post graduate projects (30 including 4 PhDs) and have published numerous papers (>80). He was mainly responsible for preparing first “National Bioinformatics policy” document in 2004 submitted to HEC. He has been an affiliate faculty and visiting scientist in the US and UK. During his research career at COMSATS since 2003, he secured several national and international research grants from National and International Funding Agencies such as HEC, PSF, British Council INSPIRE & SPEKE AWARDS), European Union H2020-RISE) award and PSF-TUBITAK