Dr Nessar Ahmed holds the position of Reader in Clinical Biochemistry at the Department of Life Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is an Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry at the Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, University of Karachi, and Honorary Professor of Biochemistry at the Ziauddin University in Karachi, Pakistan. He is also a Visiting Scientist at the King Fahad Medical Research Centre, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is Honorary Member of the Centre for Natural Products Discovery, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
Dr Ahmed holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Biomedical Science and a PhD in Medical Biochemistry. He received postdoctoral training as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, New York Medical College, USA and then as a Clinical Biochemist with the West Midlands Regional Health Authority and University of Birmingham in the UK. He has worked at the Warwick Hospital, University of Birmingham Wolfson Research Laboratories, City Hospital and Birmingham Heartlands Hospital all in the UK.
Dr Ahmed is a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science (FIBMS), Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath), and holds membership of the Biochemical Society, Association for Clinical Biochemistry, Diabetes UK, Diabetes and Obesity Research Network and the International Maillard Reaction Society, USA. He has been awarded Chartered Scientist (CSci) status by the UK Science Council in recognition of his achievements in biomedical science.
Dr Ahmed is a recipient of numerous awards and honours for both his research and teaching activities. In 2014, he was winner of the British Muslim Award for Services to Science and Engineering whereas in 2010, he received the I Love my Lecturer Teaching Award for Best Supervisor by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Student’s Union. In 2004, he received the Exemplary Research Award by the Research Institute of Health and Social Change at MMU. He received the Young Investigators Award in 2003 by the World Association for Societies in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Dr Ahmed is an international authority in his field of research and heads a large research group with a major interest in the biochemistry underlying diabetic complications and the possible therapeutic potential of nutraceuticals. His research has attracted considerable media attention both in the UK (Channel 4 TV, Daily Mail, Manchester Evening News) and in Pakistan (Daily Jang, Dawn). Furthermore, his research activities have generated over a million pounds of income most of which is external from charities, pharmaceutical industry, and international governmental organisations. This includes major funding from the Nestle Foundation to conduct a study in Karachi investigating blood and hair lead and manganese levels in children with iron deficiency anaemia. He has attracted funding for over four million rupees from the Higher Education Commission in Pakistan to undertake a collaborative project with colleagues in Karachi aimed at identifying new natural products with therapeutic potential for diabetic patients - the findings of which have led to the filing of a US patent application. More recently, he has completed a collaborative study funded by the Pakistan Academy of Science investigating the scientific basis underlying the link between diabetes and breast cancer. He has supervised numerous research projects involving postdoctoral scientists, PhD students and examined up to PhD level for over 100 UK, Pakistani and overseas universities.
Dr Ahmed has published high quality papers in international journals and has been an invited speaker at over 40 conferences world-wide including Pakistan, Europe, USA, South Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. Indeed, one of his papers published in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice has been ranked Number 1 by ScienceDirect in their Top 25 Hottest Articles being the most frequently downloaded article for this journal in 2005. He is an author/editor of eight highly regarded textbooks used world-wide on biomedical science programmes. These include Biology of Disease published by Taylor and Francis Group and Clinical Biochemistry and Biomedical Science Practice both published by the prestigious Oxford University Press and Blood Science - Principles and Pathology published by Wiley. Dr Ahmed is on the editorial board for the Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Journal of the Bahria University Medical and Dental College, Pakistan Journal of Medicine and Dentistry, Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, International Journal of Nanomedicine and Nanoengineering, and Baqai Journal of Health Sciences. He has acted as a referee for over fifty different international journals.
He has been invited to review grant applications for the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Diabetes UK, Wellcome Trust, The Royal Society, Medical Research Council, American Diabetes Association, Philip Morris External Research Grants, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, Health Research Council of New Zealand, Czech Science Foundation, Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development Programme, and the Sheikh Hamdan Award for Medical Sciences of UAE.
Dr Ahmed has acted as an advisor for promotion of research and academic staff at University of Nizwa in Oman, Mutah University in Jordan, University of Guyana, King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, University of Punjab, University of Karachi, and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He has also acted an international consultant providing advice on the development of biomedical science programmes at the Omdurman Ahlia University in Sudan. Dr Ahmed acted as a consultant for the Government of Pakistan under the TOKTEN Programme in 2001 (funded by the United Nations) where he has advised on the development of research at universities in Pakistan. He was invited again to act as a consultant for the Government of Pakistan under their scheme entitled Availing the Services of Expatriate Pakistani’s and Foreign Academicians for Science and Technology Organisations and Universities in 2003 (funded by the Pakistan Ministry of Science and Technology). Following these visits, Dr Ahmed has submitted reports aimed at improving research capacity and PhD education in Pakistan. This advice is based on his own experience of research assessment and quality assurance procedures used in the UK.
