Excutives | DUBANA

DUBANA Executive Committee 2026-27

Dr. Shoaib Chowdhury President Dr. Shoaib Chowdhury is working as an Instructional Laboratory Supervisor and a part-time faculty, teaching Biology and Microbiology at Montgomery College, Maryland. He is a recipient of the College Staff Outstanding Service Award and National Institute for Organizational Development (NISOD) Excellence Award. Dr. Chowdhury completed his bachelor’s and master’s degree from Dhaka University Biochemistry department (1981-82 admission batch). He received his Ph.D. from Kumamoto University, Japan and then did his post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. Later he was appointed as a research faculty at the Neuroscience department of the Johns Hopkins University. His research concentration was on characterization of brain specific immediate early genes. Dr. Chowdhury has also worked as a Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health for a couple of years conducting research on G-protein couple receptors. His research findings were published in prestigious journals including Neuron, Cell. One of his research outcomes was published as a cover story in the journal, Neuron. Dr. Chowdhury played a leading role forming DUBANA. He is the resident agent of DUBANA and unofficially lead DUBANA along with two other alumni till official formation of this organization. He is always active in community services. He was involved with Red Crescent and was the president of Rotaract Club of Metropolitan Dhaka at the time of his university life. He organized many programs at the Biochemistry department for 3 years and later arranged donations of books and other items to the department. In the Washington DC area, he led Dhaka University Alumni Group in 2009-10. He coordinated the DC Ekushe Alliance program 3 times. He was one the leading founding member of this alliance of 7 to 25 member organizations, jointly celebrate Ekushey programs since 2010 in greater Washington DC area.

Dr. M Rubayet Hasan Vice President Dr. M Rubayet Hasan is a Clinical Microbiologist at Hamilton Regional Laboratory Program (HRLMP) of Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare.He also holds a faculty cross-appointment with McMaster University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. Dr. Hasan provides clinical and scientific oversight of microbiological and molecular diagnostic testing services for infectious diseases and is also actively involved in the planning, execution, and direction of educational and research activities. Prior to joining HRLMP, he served at multiple institutions, including Lifelabs Ontario, Sidra Medicine in Qatar, and BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals in Vancouver, either as a Clinical Microbiologist or as a Laboratory Scientist. Dr. Hasan was an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. With a background in molecular biology, he has been involved in teaching, research, and the design, development, and validation of numerous molecular assays for bacterial and viral pathogens, which were successfully implemented for patient service in the diagnostic laboratories he has previously worked in. Over the last decade, Dr. Hasan has secured 10 research grants through internal and external competitions and has published over a hundred peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters to date. His current research focuses on the application of novel technologies, including next-generation sequencing, to the diagnosis and surveillance of infectious diseases.

Istiaque Uddin Ahmed General Secretary Istiaque Uddin Ahmed MSc. and BSc. BMB ,DU Fast-track advanced diploma (Co-op) in Biotechnology and Industrial Microbiology, Toronto. Certification on HACCP and GMP, Toronto Mr. Istiaque Ahmed is currently working as QA supervisor in CBC - a food industry. It’s been 7 years for him for being a part of management team and contributing in improvement of business focusing on company’s goal for keeping the highest quality and safety margin of its food products. He worked another 5 years in similar area (quality, food ) and other laboratories ( micro, chemical ) in Toronto for rest of the time. Meanwhile, he also had chance to be involved in a family business in medical and pharmacy area. He started his career in diagnostic centers and pharmaceutical companies including Popular diagnostic centre, ACME and Aventis in Bangladesh. Mr. Istiaque moved to Canada along with his wife as landed immigrant in skilled worker category in 2006 when he had a challenging start of his career. During this period, he has been involved himself in learning about north American culture, upgrading himself academically to cope with new job market, awarded a nice family with 3 beautiful kids, finally got into track and serving community to some extent. Mr. Istiaque has been involved in social, cultural and humanitarian activities throughout his life. His involvements include working as General Secretary of DUBANA; organizing secretary ( former ) of GBA ( Graduate Biochemist Association ) ; general secretary ( current ) of Dhaka University Forum, Canada; advisor (current) of BACABANA ( Association of Bangladeshi Chemistry and biochemistry Alumni in North America) , central advisor ( current ) and General Secretary ( former) of the first central committee of Badhan ( a voluntary blood donor’s organization in Bangladesh). He also has passion in sports specially soccer; this is to mention here that he had opportunity to play soccer in BMB, DU football team as captain in inter-department Football tournament and won the first champion trophy of BMB, DU in DU south. He loves to perform and organize cultural activities aiming to keep himself and the surroundings more vibrant, interactive and stress free.

Dr Marjia Afrin Joint Secretary Dr. Marjia Afrin is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the institute of Stem cells and Regenerative Medicine program at Stanford University, CA. Marjia Completed her bachelor’s and Master’s in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department (Batch-58, Admission Year-2009/10) from University of Dhaka. She received her PhD from in Cell and Molecular Medicine Specialization Program at Cleveland State University, OH. She loves to take new challenges and therefore, moved to a new field of Fibrotic disease from the hardcore fundamental molecular biology. She believes herself as a true molecular biologist and want to imply her expertise into the fibrotic disease research further. Marjia loves to read and travel during her free time. Personally, she is a big feminist supporter and always tries to raise her voice as much as possible for the advocacy of women’s right.

Dr. Ahsan H Polash Executive Member Ahsan Polash is a computational biologist at NIAMS/NIH. His current research focuses on studying transcriptional regulation mediated by RNA-binding proteins. Ahsan earned his doctoral degree from Kyoto University, Japan in 2021. During his doctoral studies he worked as a cheminformatician predicting the toxicity of chemical compounds and visualizing the decision-making steps of Machine learning. Simultaneously he studied hormone-responsive enhancer mediated transcriptional regulation. Ahsan loves cooking and chatting with friends during idle time.

Jubayer Rahman, PhD Treasurer Jubayer Rahman, PhD, is a Staff Scientist whose research focuses on complement proteins and inflammation. He currently works at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Rahman’s journey in scientific exploration has been marked by discoveries and a commitment to advancing our understanding of immune responses at single cell level. His current focus on prostanoid metabolism in T cells revealed new pathways of complement molecules that might have impact on critical cellular processes in health and diseases. Dr. Rahman is always thrilled to organize events at ‘DUBANA TALK’. He is open to discuss issues between members of DUBANA community and ready to find a common ground to serve. He is currently serving as a ‘Treasurer’ of the DUBANA Executive committee. Dr. Rahman loves sports; tennis is his first choice when comes to play!

Kazi Rafsan Radeen Executive Member (Dec/24-25) ) Kazi Rafsan Radeen is a PhD candidate of Cellular Biology and Anatomy at Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. He is now studying the effect of glutathione dysregulation on Alzheimer’s Disease. Simultaneously he is working on the effect of depleted glutathione on early eye lens development and congenital cataracts formation. Earlier he studied the circulatory oxidative stress level in acute coronary syndrome patients and worked on the development of a probiotic for chromium remediation in poultry. Radeen loves cooking new recipes and trekking with his family and friends.

Dr. Sharifun Nahar (Mukta) Executive Member Dr. Sharifun Nahar works at Charles River laboratories in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Her role as a Scientist in immunology where she overseas pre-clinical studies for the small and large molecules that are considered as drug candidates. Her studies are mainly related to monitoring the antibodies generated against the drug and the toxicokinetics in the animal models. She pursued her doctoral degree from Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Quebec, Canada (2021). Her doctoral work involved the Enzyme kinetics and phage-display. She received JSPS scholarship to study Terahertz Chemical Microscopy for Enzyme kinetics at Okayama University in Japan (2016). She completed her M.Sc. from the same institution just before her PhD (2014). Sharifun developed a colorimetric Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method that is suitable for point-of-care diagnosis for Herpes Simplex Virus. Before moving to Canada, she worked at the Virology Laboratory at International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) where she actively worked in a Hospital based surveillance study to monitor the Influenza types/sub-types that were circulating during the period of Influenza Epidemic in Bangladesh (2009). Sharifun enrolled at BMB-DU at the session 1991-92 for pursuing undergraduate degree. She completed her M.Sc. from BMB-DU with the collaboration of icddr,b for M.Sc. thesis under the supervision of Dr. Dilara Islam. In her personal life, she is a mother of two daughters. Her hobbies are gardening, cooking and writing. Currently she is writing a book on nutrition in simple Bangla to make it understandable to all. Her dream is to write a book addressing religious (Islam) mis-leading information that goes against women.

Dr. Mohammad Badrul Anam Executive Member Dr. Mohammad Badrul Anam is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at SUNY Upstate Medical University, where he works on transla!onal Alzheimer’s disease research using complementary animal and cell-based approaches. His research founda!on was built during his PhD training at Kumamoto University, Japan, and re+ects a sustained track record across developmental neurobiology, cancer cell reprogramming, and neurodegenera!on.Alongside academia, he brings extensive experience across the life-science industry in Bangladesh. He previously worked at Eskayef Pharmaceu!cals and Opsonin Pharma in roles that combined scien!/c engagement with brand growth, market insight, and product commercializa!on. He later helped to lead MetaMed Pharma Ltd., where he directed business strategies and played a key role in establishing the pharmaceu!cal manufacturing opera!on from the ground up, alongside overseeing day-to-day business execu!on and regulatory coordina!on.Dr. Anam also worked at the Ins!tute for Developing Science and Health Ini!a!ves (ideSHi), where he led funded research projects and served as a laboratory director suppor!ng diagnos!c and CRO services, coordina!ng collabora!ons with both interna!onal partners and na!onal stakeholders. His global exposure includes overseas and government internships through the HIGO Program (Japan), with study visits to organiza!ons such as the World Bank Group, CDC, and Grameen Founda!on, and /eld-based learning on universal health coverage and rural health delivery in Japan. These experiences shaped a “glocal” lens that informs his entrepreneurial interests in building prac!cal, science-driven health solu!ons.In his free !me, he enjoys experimen!ng with fusion cooking and spending !me in researching the Qur’an and re+ec!ng on its teachings and ethics

Indrajit Sarker Executive Member Indrajit Sarker Works at AMNEAL Pharmaceutical LLC, in New York Site.His role as a Senior Scientist, Quality Control,He is involved in analytical complex techniques applying and performing to release the commercial supply. Indrajit Sarker completed his bachelor's in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, session: 2001

Akramul Hassan Executive Member Akramul Hassan is a first-year PhD student in Chemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He recently joined an organic chemistry research group where his work focuses on developing molecular catalysts for sustainable amide-bond formation. His research aims to design catalyst systems that enable efficient carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bond construction without the need for stoichiometric activators, which currently contribute to significant chemical waste. By combining mechanistic studies with bifunctional strategies, his project seeks to establish environmentally friendly methods for both large-scale feedstock transformations and late-stage functionalization of complex molecules. In the free time, Akramul enjoys watching TV series and playing soccer.