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Professor Dr. Rownak Jahan is a prominent academic and administrator at the University of Development Alternative, serving as Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering. She concurrently holds the positions of Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences and Pro-Vice Chancellor. Rownak Jahan earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Kansas State University, USA. She also obtained her M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Dhaka. Her listed expertise includes Molecular Biology and Tissue Culture, reflecting her focus within biotechnology and genetic engineering.
Professor Jahan's research interests lie in ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, medicinal plants, and molecular docking, with a particular emphasis on traditional folk medicine in Bangladesh. Her extensive body of work is evidenced by Google Scholar profiles showing over 19,000 citations. Key publications include 'A randomized survey of medicinal plants used by folk medicinal healers of Sylhet Division, Bangladesh' by M. Rahmatullah et al., a foundational study on regional ethnomedicine; 'Effect of Cuscuta reflexa Stem and Calotropis procera Leaf Extracts on Glucose Tolerance in Glucose-Induced Hyperglycemic Rats and Mice' (2009), investigating plant-based antidiabetic agents; 'Ethnomedicinal survey of various communities residing in Garo Hills of Bangladesh' (2015); 'Medicinal plants and formulations of Tribal healers of the ...' (2014); 'Zingiber officinale: Ayurvedic Uses of the Plant and In Silico Binding Studies of Selected Phytochemicals With Mpro of SARS-CoV-2' (2021); and 'Plant lectins as prospective antiviral biomolecules in the search for novel therapeutic targets against novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)' (2022). These contributions document and scientifically evaluate traditional plant uses, bridging ethnomedicinal knowledge with contemporary biochemical and pharmacological research, thereby impacting the academic fields of plant biotechnology and natural product drug discovery.