Prof Dr Moazur Rahman

FACULTY



Prof. Dr. Moazur Rahman

Director


e-mail: moaz@cemb.edu.pk
Contact: +92 42 35293127

Moazur Rahman has completed MSc in Chemistry from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, MPhil (Biotechnology) from NIBGE Faisalabad/Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and PhD (Molecular Membrane/Structural Biology) from the University of Leeds, UK. From 2012-2013, he worked as Fulbright Fellow at the Harvard Medical School, Boston. Before joining as Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, University of the Punjab (http://pu.edu.pk/faculty/description/2357/Prof-Dr-Moazur-Rahman.html) and Director at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Biology, Prof. Rahman headed the structural biology research at National Institute for Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Faisalabad, and developed state-of-the-art structural biology laboratory which is among the leading laboratories in Pakistan (http://www.nibge.org/Profile.aspx?PID=56). Prof. Rahman has published many research articles in international peer reviewed journals on structure and function of diverse membrane- and viral proteins, highlighting important features of these proteins which render them attractive for use as diagnostic antigens or as drug- and vaccine targets. He has also filed patents in the US/Pakistan on development of diagnostic tools for infectious bursal disease in poultry. On applied fronts, for the first time in Pakistan, he has successfully developed recombinant vaccines and diagnostic tools for poultry infectious bursal disease virus and Fowl adenovirus. He has also identified and characterized a multidrug resistance pump, STY4874, in local isolates of Salmonella Typhi to combat antimicrobial resistance in typhoid patients. To strengthen research in the fields of protein structural biology, vaccine development and disease diagnostics, he has won 3 international and 15 national competitive research grants, amounting to > 312 million PKR from diverse funding agencies such as ICGEB (Italy), IAEA (Austria), ALP-PARC (Pakistan), PSF (Pakistan), HEC (Pakistan). Moreover, he has established collaborations with leading research groups in China, Denmark, Australia, UK, Italy, USA, and with the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle-East (SESAME) facility, Jordan, in the field of protein crystallography, vaccine development and disease diagnostics. To train the human resource in the field of structural biology, he has organized/co-organized 4 international workshops on ‘‘X-ray Crystallography in Structural Biology and Modeling/Simulation’’ in Pakistan, and Prof. Rahman is an active member of the National Committee of Crystallography / IUCr Adhering Body, Pakistan. He has also served as a member of the Technical Committee of PAEC-International Nathiagali Summer Colleges (2016 to 2017, 2020). During his career, Prof. Rahman has won several research and fellowship awards (Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) PhD Scholarship award (2002), IsDB excellent leadership award (2009), Fulbright Postdoctoral fellowship (2012), SESAME and IAEA Fellowship awards (2010, 2011, 2015 and 2017), PAEC-NIBGE Gold Medal (2014), Research Productivity awards by the Government of Pakistan (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015), and Pakistan Academy of Sciences (Biotechnology) ZKS-Gold Medal award (2018). Moreover, Prof. Rahman is a member of the scientific expert panels of IsDB, Fulbright-USEFP, HEC, MoPET, several national Universities and a number of international scientific journals, and is a visiting faculty member of HEJ, Karachi.

Research interests:

The research work of Prof Rahman is focus

  • Structure-function studies of proteins: Membrane proteins including multidrug efflux transporters
  • Vaccines and Diagnostics: Viral vector, virus-like particle, subunit and live-attenuated vaccines, and rapid and on-site diagnostics
  • Enzyme inhibition: Proteases (HCV and Dengue)

Prof. Rahman is interested in employing structural biology techniques such as X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infra-red and Fluorescence spectroscopy for understanding structure-function relationships of proteins relevant to human and animal diseases. The ultimate goal is to generate knowledge by uncovering the molecular basis of drug resistance and virulence of pathogens, and to utilize this knowledge for devising novel preventive and therapeutic strategies, and diagnostics. In particular, molecular mechanisms underlying the transport of various solutes through multidrug efflux transporters of Gram negative bacteria such as Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi are being studied through the use of a battery of molecular biology techniques for understanding the drug resistance mechanism.

A major thrust of the research work is also on development of modern recombinant vaccines (through prediction and validation of potent epitopic regions on protein targets, protein engineering and production, and development of viral vector vaccines) and diagnostics for diseases caused by Fowl adenovirus (FAV)n infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) and Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which inflict significant damages to the poultry industry worldwide, including Pakistan and more recently on development of viral vector vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

Selected Publications:

  1. Tariq, A., Shaheen, A., Iqbal, M., & Rahman, M. (2025). styMdtM gene deletion with modified Lambda-Red recombineering approach: Implications for multidrug resistance in Salmonella Typhi. Journal of Microbiological Methods 107191. (Impact factor 1.9) Q3
  2. Naz, Z.; Rathore, I.; Saleem, M.; Rahman, M.; Wlodawer, A.; Rashid, N. A Bifunctional Phosphoglucomutase/Phosphomannomutase from Thermococcus kodakarensis: Biophysical Analysis and Cryo-EM Structure. Biomolecules 2025, 15, 319 (Impact factor 4.8) Q1
  3. Fouzia Ismat, Anam Tariq, Aqsa Shaheen, Raheem Ullah, Kayode Raheem, Muhammad Muddassar, Sadia Mahboob, Wasim Abbas, Mazhar Iqbal, Moazur Rahman (2024) Inhibition of NS2B-NS3 Protease from All Four Serotypes of Dengue Virus by Punicalagin, Punicalin and Ellagic Acid Identified from Punica granatum, Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics
    https://doi.org/10.1080/07391102.2024.2314258. (Impact factor 5.2) Q1
  4. Rohama Zahid, Syeda Fakhra Waheed, Ayesha Siddiqua, Muhammad Salahuddin Shah, Muhammad Saleem, Mazhar Iqbal, Min Liao, Aamir Shehzad and Moazur Rahman (2024) ‘‘Fowl Adenovirus Induced Diseases: Analyses of Major Capsid Proteins and Vaccine Strategies” World’s Poultry Science Journal,
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00439339.2024.2315424 (Impact factor 3.5) Q1
  5. Shaheen, A., Tariq, A., Ismat, F., Naveed, H., De Zorzi, R., Iqbal, M., Storici, P., Mirza, O., Walz, T., & Rahman, M*. (2024). Identification of additional mechanistically important residues in the multidrug transporter styMdtM of Salmonella Typhi. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, 42(21), pp.11641-11650 (Impact factor 5.2) Q1
  6. Mahboob, S., Ullah, N., Farhan Ul Haque, M., Rauf, W., Iqbal, M., Ali, A., and Rahman, M*. (2023). Genomic characterization and comparative genomic analysis of HS-associated Pasteurella multocida serotype B:2 strains from Pakistan. BMC Genomics 24, 546. (Impact factor 3.7) Q2
  7. Mahboob, S., M. Iqbal, and M. Rahman*. 2022. Development of ELISA-based diagnostic methods for the detection of haemorrhagic septicaemia in animals. Journal of Microbiological Methods 106652 (Impact factor 1.9) Q3
  8. Tufail, S., M. A. Shah, T. A. Asif, R. Ullah, A. Shehzad, F. Ismat, M. S. Shah, M. Habib, B. M. Calisto, O. Mirza, M. Iqbal, and M. Rahman. 2022. Highly soluble and stable ‘insertion domain’ of the capsid penton base protein provides complete protection against infections caused by fowl adenoviruses. Microbial pathogenesis 173:105835 (Impact factor 3.5). Q2
  9. Zahra Naz, Fouzia Ismat, Muhammad Saleem, Mazhar Iqbal, Aamir Shehzad, and Moazur Rahman (2021) Single-step detergent-assisted extraction and solubilization of the matrix protein of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and development of ELISA for detection of anti-NDV antibodies in chickens, Pakistan Journal of Zoology
    https://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.pjz/20210913180900 (Impact factor 0.5) Q4
  10. Soban Tufail, Majid Ali Shah, Aamir Shehzad, Muhammad Salahuddin Shah, Mudasser Habib, Muhammad Muddassar, Muhammad Kashif Saleemi, Mazhar Iqbal, Osman Mirza, Moazur Rahman (2021) Identification of potent epitopes on hexon capsid protein and their evaluation as vaccine candidates against infections caused by members of Adenoviridae family, Vaccine (39) 3560–3564 (Impact factor 4.5) Q2
  11. Aqsa Shaheen, Fouzia Ismat, Mazhar Iqbal, Abdul Haque, Zaheer Ul-Haq, Osman Mirza, Rita De Zorzi, Thomas Walz and Moazur Rahman (2021) Characterization of the multidrug efflux transporter styMdtM from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, PROTEINS: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, https://doi.org/10.1002/prot.26141 (Impact factor 3.2).Q2
  12. Aqsa Shaheen, Anam Tariq, Aamir Shehzad, Mazhar Iqbal, Osman Mirza, Dmitry A. Maslov and Moazur Rahman (2020) Transcriptional regulation of drug resistance mechanisms in Salmonella: Where we stand and what we need to know. World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology 36, 85 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-020-02862-x (Impact factor 4.3) Q2
  13. Maryam Zafar, Majid Ali Shah, Aamir Shehzad, Anam Tariq, Mudasser Habib, Muhammad Muddassar, Muhammad Salahuddin Shah, Mazhar Iqbal, Farhid Hemmatzadeh and Moazur Rahman (2020) Characterization of the highly immunogenic VP2 protrusion domain as a diagnostic antigen for members of Birnaviridae family. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (104) 3391-3402 (Impact factor 5.56) Q1
  14. Faiza Azizǂ, Soban Tufailǂ, Majid Ali Shah, Muhammad Salahuddin Shah, Mudasser Habib, Osman Mirza, Mazhar Iqbal and Moazur Rahman (2019) In silico epitope prediction and immunogenic analysis of epitope-based penton base vaccine against hydropericardium syndrome in chicken, Virus Research, doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2019.197750 (Impact factor 6.30) Q2
  15. Anam Tariq, Maryam Sana, Aqsa Shaheen, Fouzia Ismat, Sadia Mahboob, Waqar Rauf, Osman Mirza, Mazhar Iqbal, and Moazur Rahman (2019) Restraining the multidrug efflux transporter STY4874 of Salmonella Typhi by reserpine and plant extracts, Letters in Applied Microbiology, 69:161-167. (Impact factor 2.8) Q3
Resume
Research Gate
Google Scholar