Advisor

Dr. Mohd. Shamim Iqbal, born and brought up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is defined by his dynamic and bicontinental career in medical and biopharmaceutical industries in Bangladesh, Japan and the United Kingdom. Dr. Iqbal is a Notredamian (#941091) and training for his career in his chosen fields began with his Bachelor's and Master's in “Microbiology” at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He earned a second Masters with distinction in “Medical Engineering Sciences”, followed by a PhD with distinction in “Cancer Biology and Immunohematology’’ from Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, under the prestigious Japanese Government Scholarship, Monbukagakusho. Following his PhD, he received post-doctoral training as a Visiting Research Fellow, at the Queen Mary University of London, UK on “Fetal Origin of Human Diseases” from the Centre for Diabetes, Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He did his second post-doctoral training on “Mechanisms of Bacterial Drug Resistance” from the Centre for Food and Water-borne Diseases, icddr,b under the Young Scientist Award for research. His post-doctoral training also includes “Microdata Analysis using R and Bioconductor” from the Department of Genetics, Graduate School of Life Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Dr. Iqbal’s colorful career began in 2002 at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddrb), which is the top research institute of Bangladesh as well as in the subcontinent. Dr. Iqbal joined icddr,b as a Senior Research Assistant and later worked as a Research Officer in the Enteric Microbiology Laboratory. He also worked as an Assistant Scientist in the Center for Food and Waterborne Diseases (CFWD) icddr,b in 2010. He joined as the lead scientist of the Cancer Working Group at the Center for Control of Chronic Diseases (CCCD) of icddr,b in 2013. In 2014, he joined the Nutrition and Clinical Services Division (NCSD) of icddr,b and in 2016, became an Associate Scientist. He has also served as an elected member of icddr,b’s most prestigious Scientific Council. He has published over 25 scientific research articles in world class international journals including Nature Oncogene, BMC Cancer, European Journal of Hematology, British Journal of Hematology, European Journal of Cancer Prevention, BMC Psychiatry, PLoS One, Journal of Medical Microbiology, Maternal & Child Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Bulletin, BMJ Open, Blood and The Lancet. He has presented his work at many conferences globally, and published more than 50 conference papers in scientific journals. During his career, he collaborated with many researchers and physicians in national and international levels including some of the most famous and iconic individuals in the field. The star-studded names include Professor Dr. Harrold Eliot Varmus, a famous oncologist and Nobel laureate in 1989. Professor Harrold Varmus was also served as President Barak Obama’s advisor from 1993 to 1999 as Co-Chair of the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a developmental biologist, Sir Peter David Gluckman, who was the Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister, from 2009 to 2018 and the Founding Director of the Liggins Institute. At present, he is the President of International Science Council. In parallel to his research works, Dr. Iqbal has passion for teaching and served as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at Independent University, Bangladesh, which is a top-ranked university in the country and taught “Global Health”, and “Public Health Nutrition” Courses and prior to this, he taught as an adjunct faculty at James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, which is the top Public Health School in the country and served as a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant in Department of Bio-Signal Analysis, Laboratory of Cellular Signal Analysis of Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan for five long years. He also acted as guide to many MSc and MPH students also provided Molecular and Cellular Biology training to research students from home and abroad.

And after almost two decades of research and teaching, Dr. Iqbal finally left icddr,b in February 2019 and served as the BOD, Managing Director, and CEO of Amulet Pharmaceuticals Limited from March 2019 to April 2022. In July 2019, he also became the Chairman of Hygeia Technologies Limited. Since leaving icddr,b, Dr. Iqbal’s focus has shifted to business within the field of his expertise – health and medicine and in March 2020, Dr. Iqbal founded Biofiber International Limited, which is going to be the first international standard contract research organization (CRO) in Bangladesh and became its founding Managing Director. As of July 2022, he is serving as the Chairman, Managing Director, and also the CEO of Biofiber International Limited. From August 1st, 2024, Dr. Iqbal is serving as an Advisor to Desh Pharmaceuticals Ltd. With special focuses on Joint Ventures (JV) and International Sales & Marketing. Dr. Iqbal is also serving as an Advisor to Biogen Pharmaceuticals Limited., Optimum Pharmaceuticals (HBL) and Quality Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Finally, on a soft note, it is mentionable that Dr. Iqbal is an over-achiever and is more than just an academician and a researcher. He is proficient in several languages including English, Hindi, and Japanese. It is also mentioned that he had been the captain of both the soccer and cricket teams of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Dhaka. Dr. Iqbal is a self-confident, hard-working, versatile, optimistic, extroverted, human being with an amicable character and strong ethics. He is 47 years old and the father of two sons. He has a passion for family, friends, music, camping, and farming. As an over-achiever his achievements, despite his late advent into the realm of entrepreneurship, promise to be filled with grand successes and Dr. Iqbal whole-heartedly welcomes Pharmaceuticals, Bio-techs, CROs, Medical Devices and other health and medicine-related industries and research organizations and institutions for mutually exclusive collaborations and partnerships from all over the world in the upcoming future for the better welfare of the humanity.