Rate My Professor Akram Shah

Professor Dr. Akram Shah is Professor of Zoology and Head of the Department of Chemical and Life Sciences at Qurtuba University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan. He also serves as Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Information Technology and holds positions on the university's Academic Council and Board of Advanced Studies and Research. Shah earned his PhD in Parasitology from King’s College London in 1993, with a thesis titled "Site-specific Anti-leishmanial Drug Delivery: with special reference to the use of Modified Apoprotein-B as a site-specific delivery ligand," supervised by Dr. David Thomas Hart. He previously obtained an M.Sc. in Zoology, first class first position with a gold medal, from the University of Peshawar in 1986, specializing in parasitology with a thesis on malaria prevalence among Afghan refugees. His career at the University of Peshawar spanned from Lecturer in Zoology (1994-1998), Assistant Professor (1998-2004), Associate Professor (2004-2009), Professor (2009-2020), to Chairman of the Department of Zoology (2018-2020). He joined Qurtuba University as Professor in November 2020. An HEC-approved PhD supervisor since 2009, Shah has established a state-of-the-art cell culture and antileishmanial drug delivery laboratory equipped for in vitro studies including ELISA and MTT assays.

Shah's research focuses on applied medical and veterinary parasitology, particularly the molecular mechanisms of Leishmania tropica survival within macrophages, antileishmanial drug-induced apoptosis, and the immunomodulatory effects of drugs like miltefosine and buparvaquone in THP-1 and J774 cell lines. His work addresses cutaneous leishmaniasis prevalent in Pakistan and globally, evaluating synthetic and natural products for therapeutic potential. He has received the University of Peshawar Gold Medal, Science and Technology scholarships for PhD and postdoctoral studies, a Commonwealth Postdoctoral Fellowship (2006), Journal of Cell Science Cambridge Traveling Fellowship (2009), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa R&D Effort Award (2014) with cash prize, HEC-British Council INSPIRE grants (2011-2015), and HEC NRPU research projects (2016-2020). Key publications include "Chemiluminescence response of J774.2T9 macrophages to Leishmania mexicana mexicana" (1991, Journal of Science & Technology), "Preparation and characterization of acetylated-LDL-liposomes" (1993), "Use of ether liposomes as anti-leishmanial agents and carriers" (1993), and contributions on leishmaniasis drug delivery. He contributes to editorial boards such as The Sciencetech.