105. Niyaz Ahmed

Niyaz Ahmed is an Indian Professor of microbial sciences, a veterinarian by training, science blogger, and an Open Access advocate based in Hyderabad, India.


Training and career

Ahmed graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1995 (Nagpur) and obtained further degrees in Animal Biotechnology (MS) (NDRI, Karnal) and Molecular Medicine (PhD) (Manipal University). He joined CDFD in Hyderabad as a tenured faculty member (Staff Scientist) in 1998. In December 2008 he moved to the University of Hyderabad as Associate Professor of Biotechnology and since then has been involved in post-graduate teaching and research supervision at the School of Life Sciences. Ahmed is also affiliated with the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysiaas an Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biosciences at the Institute of Biological Sciences. He also serves as Professor of Chemical Biology (Adjunct) at the Institute of Life Sciences Hyderabad, India.

 Professional contributions

Ahmed serves as Section Editor (Genomics and Microbiology) of PLoS ONE, published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), USA. Currently, he is also providing editorial oversight to the "PLoS ONE Prokaryotic Genome Collection". Ahmed also serves as the member of the PLoS International Advisory Group. More recently, he became one of the Editors-in-Chief of Gut Pathogens, published by BioMed Central Ltd. (London). Ahmed is a member of the International Society for Genomic and Evolutionary Microbiology (Italy) and currently serves as its General Secretary. He is also a member of the Faculty of 1000 Biology and has been elected to the Indian National Academy of Sciences.

 Graduate teaching and research

Ahmed teaches courses in Molecular Biology (laboratory), Genomics and Scientific writing for Master's and Doctoral students, respectively, at the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad. He has pioneered efforts in the development of a scientific writing course for research level students in India. His current research interests include genomics, evolution and molecular pathogenesis of the two co-evolved human pathogens, namely, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Helicobacter pylori, in the context of evolution of adaptation mechanisms, and acquisition and optimization of virulence during colonization/infection. Ahmed also has interest in comparative genomics of bacterial pathogens obtained from single patients at different occasions and this approach nurtures his concept of 'chronological evolution and replicative genomics' as tools to study host-microbe interaction over time. Ahmed's group has developed a widely used multilocus sequence typing scheme for species level identification of pathogenic Leptospira with a potential to replace the highly ambiguous serotyping method that currently is used for Leptospiral strain identification.
Ahmed is also a Speaker of the International Graduate College - Functional molecular infection epidemiology - GRK1673, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and heads the India arm of the GRK 1673.




Source : Wikipedia

Dr Niyaz Ahmed is an academic bio-scientist, veterinarian and an Open Access advocate based in Hyderabad, India. He was graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1995 and obtained further degrees in Animal Biotechnology (MS) and Molecular Medicine (PhD). Niyaz worked for the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) for 10 years where he contributed significantly to the mission of that centre through his association studies in molecular epidemiology since 1998 until he joined the University of Hyderabad in December 2008.
http://niyazahmed.blogspot.com - this blog site is primarily aimed at re-promoting and highlighting important Open Access content that has been published in PLoS ONE journal and the Gut Pathogens.

Niyaz Ahmed was previously a Faculty Member for Gastrointestinal Infections in the Gastroenterology & Hepatology Faculty. His evaluations during that time can be viewed.

Niyaz leads a long-term program in Pathogen Genomics and Evolution at the University of Hyderabad and supervises a team of 10 PhD students and a post-doctoral fellow. Current research interests of his lab include genomics, evolution and biology of the two co-evolved pathogens, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Helicobacter pylori, in the context of evolution of host-adaptation mechanisms and optimization of virulence through genomic recasting.

Niyaz is also a Speaker of the International Graduate College - Functional Molecular Infection Epidemiology - GRK1673, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and heads the India arm of the GRK 1673.

Amidst his busy research career Niyaz is an ambassador of Open Science, Open Access to Science and Open Evaluation of Science. He is a member of the PLoS International Advisory Board and is the Section Editor (Microbiology and Genomics) of PLoS ONE. More recently, he has championed the cause of 'Gut Pathogens' - a developing-world-focussed Open Access journal, of which he is an Editor-in-Chief.

Niyaz blogs at