Saghir Akhtar

Saghir Akhtar is professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, and editor in chief of the Journal of Drug Targeting. He was previously professor of Drug Delivery in the Welsh School of Pharmacy and Director for the Centre for Genome-based Therapeutics, Cardiff University, UK (2002–2006). He led a team studying DNA chip technology with a hope of combatting a form of brain cancer known as glioma.

Akhtar obtained a First Class honours degree in Pharmacy from the Leicester School of Pharmacy and his PhD degree from the University of Bath. From 1990-1991, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at UNC Medical School at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He began his independent academic career at Aston University, firstly as lecturer from 1991–1997 and then as Reader in Pharmaceutical Sciences (1997–1999). In 1997, he was a visiting fellow with Ed Southern in the Department of Biochemistry, Oxford University. He is the winner of the Lilly Prize (1996), the Pfizer Academic Award (1997), the British Pharmaceutical Conference Science Medal (1998), the Controlled Release Society (USA) Young Investigator Research Achievement Award (2001), and the Kappa Society Science Award (2005).^{[citation needed]}

His current research interests include a) studying molecular pharmacology and signal transduction pathways involved in diabetes and/or hypertension-induced cardiovascular dysfunction; b)understanding the biological and pharmaceutical challenges associated with the development of gene silencing nucleic acids (RNA interference/ siRNA/ antisense oligonucleotides) as potential therapeutic agents; and c) studying the toxicogenomics of novel drugs and non-viral drug delivery systems. Akhtar has also provided health advice for fasting during Ramadan.

Awards

• 1996 Lilly Prize
• 1997 Pfizer Academic Award
• 1998 British Pharmaceutical Conference Science Medal
• 2001 Controlled Release Society (USA) Young Investigator Research Achievement Award
• 2005 KAPPA Society Contributions to Science Award
• 2006 Muslim News Fazlur Rahman Khan Award for Excellence in Engineering, Science and Technology