Supervisors

Dr. Haseena Khan obtained her General School Certificate (GCE) “O” Level under University of Cambridge from St. Francis Xavier’s School in January 1971. She completed her HSC from Holy Cross College, Dhaka in 1974. She obtained her B.Sc. (Hons.) in Biochemistry from Dhaka University in 1978 and did her M.Sc. in Biochemistry in 1980. She was placed in the first class for both the B.Sc. and M.Sc. programs. She then went on to do her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Sussex, England in 1982 under a Commonwealth Scholarship. At that time Haseena Khan was already a lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry and she obtained a study leave for pursuing her Ph.D. program. Professor Khan has also worked as research scientists in renowned laboratories in Toulouse, France and Montreal, Canada.

She joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (then the Department of Biochemistry), University of Dhaka as a lecturer in January 1982. She has been working as a Professor in the same department since 1995. Because of her long experience in both teaching and research in molecular biology she was made the first Chairperson of the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Dhaka in 2001. She served as the chairperson for four and a half years and was responsible in developing a strong footing of the new department which now boasts of attracting the best students of the country.

She has been involved in biological research using molecular biology and genetic engineering tools since 1982 when this discipline was at its infancy. She has attracted several foreign and national funding agencies including the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology), IJO (International Jute Organization, now called IJSG, International jute Study Group) the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Education, People's Republic of Bangladesh in getting research funds for carrying out research in molecular biology and genetic engineering.

She was one of the team leaders of the Jute Genome Sequencing Project, a project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture. She is also known for her lead on decoding the Genome of Tenualosa ilisha (The Hilsa fish) from the river Padma. She was awarded the ‘Independence Day Award’, the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh for her contribution to research and training.

In order to broaden the genetic base of jute it was necessary to implement an efficient jute breeding and transformation programme for developing stress-tolerance jute. Jute cannot be regenerated after genetic transformation since it is recalcitrant to tissue culture. In this background Dr. Khan's group has successfully developed a tissue culture independent method of efficient jute transformation. Her group has identified a number of genes differentially expressed when jute is grown at temperatures below its base temperature of 200 C. Her research group has successfully used artificial miRNA and hp-siRNA for downregulating four genes of the lignin biosynthetic pathway. Reducing the lignin content of jute has tremendous commercial implications since lignin poses a number of problems in making value-added products of jute.

Her laboratory supports many postgraduate students from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka and even students from other universities through to successful completion of their MS research programmes. A number of her students are working under her supervision on their M.Phil and Ph.D dissertation.

She has served as one of the two scientists in the National Executive Committee on Biotechnology and was also a member of the Committee responsible for drafting the National Biotechnology Policy. She is one of the four women fellows of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. She is a fellow of the TWOWS (Third World Organisation for Women in Science). She is member, Governing Body, National Institute of Biotechnology. She has contributed chapters in three books on agricultural biotechnology. She was approached by McNeil Publishers, USA for (i) Bangla-English glossary on Biotechnology and (ii) a Bangla-English glossary on Avian Flu , both of which she successfully completed.

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Riazul Islam completed his B.Sc and M.Sc from Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka. After graduation, he joined Tuberculosis laboratory, ICDDR,B as a Research Office and then moved to the Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka as a Lecturer in 2004. He received ‘UNESCO Post Graduate Fellowship in Biotechnology’ from Osaka University, Japan. He completed his PhD at Kyushu University, Japan supported by MONBUKAGASHU, MEXT, Japan. He also received ‘JSPS Post-doctoral Fellowship’ for two years at Kyushu University, Japan and ‘Georg Forster Fellowship for Experienced Researcher’ at University of Boon, Germany. He also received ‘AMP Young Researcher award’ at AMP symposium in France and ‘FAOBMB Young Scientist Award’ in FAOBMB Congress at Bangkok, Thailand. He worked on antimicrobial peptide and peptide engineering for more than 15 years and now focuses on plant microbe interaction and their potential applications in plant growth promotion. He also contributed to the ‘Hilsa genome sequencing project’ carried out at University of Dhaka. He has published 4 book chapters and more than 30 international research articles in different peer reviewed journals and participated in more than 40 national and international seminars. He is an active member of ASM, ACS, BSBMB, JSBBA, Humboldt Foundation Germany and GBA.

She had been the co-principal investigator of four research projects funded by different organizations like the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the University of Dhaka. She also won the Islamic Development Bank Roadshow Research Grant Competition. She is an active member of ASM, BSBMB, and GBA.

She is also working as a house tutor in Ruqayyah Hall, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she acts as part of the administrative team and performs community involvement work. She is also the founding and organizing member of the Environment Club at Ruqayyah Hall, where she engages students actively in the environment awareness activity and provides them with chances to acquire the mind-sets, principles, and abilities required to safeguard and enhance the environment.