President Arif Alvi conferred the first Ph.D. degree to Dr. Usman Waheed at the 3rd Convocation of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University. Dr. Waheed successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis last month and thus became the first scholar to be awarded a Ph.D. from the SZAB Medical University, Islamabad.
His Ph.D. supervisor was Prof. Hasan Abbas Zaheer, Head of Pathology Department, SZAB Medical University, Islamabad. Dr. Usman’s research was on the molecular and genetic characterization of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and its correlation with antiretroviral drug resistance among AIDS patients.
This Ph.D. research work has been published as three original scientific articles and two review articles. The work has also been presented in three international conferences held in Copenhagen (Denmark), Guangzhou (China) and Basel (Switzerland) in the last two years.
This Ph.D. research study has provided a comprehensive baseline data on the molecular and genetic characterization of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Pakistan.
The analysis of anti-retroviral drug resistance mutations would help in rationalization of the drug resistance pattern and subsequent alternate therapies. —PR
