Muhammad Imran Qadir ( ur, ; born September 3, 1978), also known as M. I. Qadir, is a Pakistani pharmaceutical scientist.

Life and education

Qadir received his early education from

Shujabad Shujaabad ( ur, ) is a city and the capital of Shujabad Tehsil of Multan District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located about in south from Multan. Chenab River is situated in the west of city. Neighbouring settlements include Jal ...

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

. He received his B.Pharm degree from

Bahauddin Zakariya University Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) ( ur, ) is a public university with its main campus in Multan, Pakistan. Bahauddin Zakariya University was founded in 1975 as Multan University, and is the 2nd largest university in Punjab. It was renamed i ...

, Pakistan. Later he attended

Quaid-i-Azam University Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad ( ur, ; commonly referred to as QAU), founded as University of Islamabad, is a ranked 1 public research university in Islamabad, Pakistan. Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967, it was initially dedi ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

and received his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree in subject of

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

and

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

. He worked in the College of Pharmacy,

Government College University (Faisalabad) The Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) is a public university located in Faisalabad, Punjab Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur (Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city ...

. He then became a researcher and professor (associate) at

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. There, he is heading "Phage Therapy & Drug Design Laboratory" of Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.

Research contributions

# Qadir test: Qadir invented a

medical test A medical test is a medical procedure performed to detect, diagnose, or monitor diseases, disease processes, susceptibility, or to determine a course of treatment. Medical tests such as, physical and visual exams, diagnostic imaging, genetic te ...

, known as the Qadir test, for diagnosis of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. The approach takes a few hours using standard laboratory equipment for the analysis of

plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

lipids Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...

(

triglycerides A triglyceride (TG, triacylglycerol, TAG, or triacylglyceride) is an ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acids (from ''tri-'' and ''glyceride''). Triglycerides are the main constituents of body fat in humans and other vertebrates, as we ...

cholesterol Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...

LDL-cholesterol Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is one of the five major groups of lipoprotein that transport all fat molecules around the body in extracellular water. These groups, from least dense to most dense, are chylomicrons (aka ULDL by the overall densit ...

and HDL-cholesterol) and a change in the

lipid Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...

profile is used as marker for diagnosis of

. A number of prospective studies were carried out by the researcher by taking fasting blood samples of study subjects from all the major four types of

cancers Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...

carcinomas Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesoder ...

sarcomas A sarcoma is a malignant tumor, a type of cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal (connective tissue) origin. Connective tissue is a broad term that includes bone, cartilage, fat, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues, and sarco ...

lymphomas Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enla ...

, and

leukemias Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. # Qadirvirtide and Qadir-C30: His work also includes invention of anti-HIV drugs, Qadirvirtide and Qadir-C30. These are fusion inhibitors that may be used as prophylaxis or for the treatment of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

. These are synthetic

peptides Peptides (, ) are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. Long chains of amino acids are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty amino acids are called oligopeptides, and include dipeptides, tripeptides, and tetrapeptides. A p ...

composed of 36 and 30 amino acids respectively. These block the entry of

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

into human CD4 cells by binding to HR1 region of

spike protein In virology, a spike protein or peplomer protein is a protein that forms a large structure known as a spike or peplomer projecting from the surface of an enveloped virus. as cited in The proteins are usually glycoproteins that form dimers or ...

, so that the virus can not come close to the human cell membrane and ultimately fusion of the viral envelope with human cell membrane is prevented. # Qadir theory of cancer etiology: He has posed that

viruses A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

are the cause of

, the idea was presented as a theory of cancer etiology. He postulated that "Viruses are the causative agents of cancer: 100% of cancer patients contain virus/es in their body which are responsible for the cancer." He also argued that some studies have opposed the idea, but he rejected them because laboratory methods were not used to detect

in those studies. The theory was concluded with the point that, in near future,

will be isolated from all

patients as causative agent of a specific

. # Qadirphages: He discovered local bacteriophages to be used as anti-bacterial products which were named as Qadirphages. The evolution of antibiotic resistance in

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

has increased research in the field of therapies to search alternative methods to control the

infections An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...

. Qadir isolated local

phages A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a ''phage'' (), is a duplodnaviria virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν ('), meaning "to devour". Bacterio ...

, characterized them and found their antibacterial activities. The phages showed maximum propagation at 37 °C indicating that these work best at human body temperature.

SDS-PAGE SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) is a Discontinuous electrophoresis, discontinuous electrophoretic system developed by Ulrich K. Laemmli which is commonly used as a method to separate proteins with molecular m ...

analysis confirmed the presence of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

cover and showed the various bands ranging from 10 to 200 kDa.

Nucleic acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main cl ...

analysis confirmed the presence of

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

with a size of approximately 20 kb.

Transmission electron microscopy Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a g ...

indicated that the isolated phages belonged to ''Siphoviridae'', ''Leviviridae'', and ''Podoviridae'' families. # Fungal Research: He also discovered new

genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

in local

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

which are involved in curing skin diseases caused by these local

. # QadirVID-19: He designed a fusion inhibitor for specific treatment of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which was named as QadirVID-19. This drug is a synthetic peptide composed of 30 amino acids. It is part of Heptad Repeat 2 (HR2) region of spike protein of 2019-nCoV which was found highly conserved region as it had 100% similarity, with

BLAST Blast or The Blast may refer to: *Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front Film * ''Blast'' (1997 film), ...

scoring of 99.5 and E-value of 5e⁻²⁴. # Publications: He has published more than 600 research articles. He has also written and edited more 15 books in the field of medical sciences. Among them, "Rare and Uncommon Diseases" and "Bacterial Diseases" are famous. # Mentorship: He is an HEC approved supervisor for PhD research in Pakistan. He has contributed in health-related community awareness programs.

Awards and recognition

Qadir was named best young research scholar by

Higher Education Commission of Pakistan The Higher Education Commission (colloquially known as HEC) is a statutory body formed by the Government of Pakistan which was established in 2002 under the Chairmanship of Atta-ur-Rahman. Its main functions are funding, overseeing, regulating ...

, and Productive Scientist of Pakistan, by Pakistan Council for Science and Technology,

Ministry of Science and Technology (Pakistan) The Ministry of Science and Technology ur, , wazarat-e- science o technology (abbreviated as MoST) is a Cabinet-level Ministry of the Government of Pakistan concerned with Science and Technology in Pakistan and in general, Pakistan's scien ...

. He received the Research Productivity Award, by Pakistan Council for Science and Technology,

. He has also received a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

in the field of

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

from

Pakistan Academy of Sciences The Pakistan Academy of Sciences ( ur, ) (abbreviated as: PAS), is a learned society of sciences, which described itself as "a repository of the highest scientific talent available in the country." Established in 1953 in Lahore, Punjab, the A ...

(PAS).

Fellowships and membership

Qadir is a Fellow of

The Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

, UK. He is a member of the

American Society for Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

the International Dermoscopy Society (IDSS),

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, and the French Society for Cell Biology. He is also member of other healthcare-related global societies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qadir, Muhammad Imran Pakistani pharmacologists Pakistani textbook writers 21st-century Pakistani scientists Theoretical chemists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People from Islamabad People from Multan Quaid-i-Azam University alumni 1978 births Living people Academic staff of Bahauddin Zakariya University Bahauddin Zakariya University alumni Pakistani inventors Pakistani scholars Pakistani scientists