Professional Biography/Short Summary
Dr. Farhat Afrin earned her Ph.D. from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in Kolkata and completed her postdoctoral studies at the NIAID, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and the Centre for Immunology and Infection at the University of York in the UK. Currently an Associate Professor at JIS University, she possesses extensive expertise in microbial immunology, nanomedicine, and vaccinology. Previously, she has worked at Hamdard University and Taibah University and guided 16 Ph.D. students and is currently supervising 4 students for Ph.Ds. With over 6 book chapters and 65 publications in renowned journals, an h-index of 35, and 2,854 citations according to the Scopus Database, Dr. Afrin has received numerous accolades, including the American Association of Immunologists Young Faculty Travel Grant, the UGC-Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship, the Biotechnology Overseas Associateship from DBT, ICMR International Fellowship for Young Indian Biomedical Scientists, among others. She has served as Principal Investigator on various research grants from DBT, DST, CCRUM, and CCRH. Additionally, she serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, such as Frontiers in Immunology, Antibodies, Frontiers in Microbiology, and PLoS One, and has edited several books published by InTech. Dr. Afrin has organized multiple national and international conferences, chaired scientific sessions, and delivered invited talks at various conferences both in India and abroad. Her current research focuses on targeting epigenetic engines for the therapy of infectious and metabolic diseases.
Academic Qualifications & Degrees
- Common wealth Fellow : Center for Immunology and Infection, The Hull York Medical School, University of York, York, U.K.
- Biotechnology Overseas : Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A
- Ph.D.: Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India
- M.Sc.: Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P., India
- B.Sc.: Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P., India
Achievements & Awards
• 2025-28 Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Immunology, 19th November 2025 – 19th November 2028
• 2024-26 Board member of the Indian Council of the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM), 1st Aug 2024 – 31st July 2026 (IAAM-15Y/US//OA-2024)
• 2022 International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) Scientist Award by IAAM
• 2019 Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Research and Teaching from Vice-Dean, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia
• 2016 Certificate of Appreciation for Research and Publications from Vice-Deanship of Girl’s Academic Studies, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia
• 2016 Certificate of Appreciation for Research and Academic credentials from Vice-Dean, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia
• 2013 DBT Travel Award (India) to participate in World Leish 5, Pernambuco, Brazil, 13-17 May 2013
• 2013 CSIR Travel Award (India) to participate in World Leish 5, Pernambuco, Brazil, 13-17 May 2013
• 2011 American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Junior Faculty Travel Grant to participate in 98th AAI Annual Meeting – IMMUNOLOGY 2011TM – San Francisco, CA, 13 – 17 May 2011
• 2010 Visiting Associate, Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship (University Grants Commission, India), to work with Dr. Paul Kaye, University of York, U.K.
• 2006 Department of Science & Technology-FAST Track Proposal for Young Scientists, India
• 2006 ICMR International Fellowship for Young Indian Biomedical Scientists to work at NIH, U.S.A.
• 2002-2003 Biotechnology Overseas Associateship Award (DBT), to work with Dr. David Sacks, LPD, NIH, U.S.A.
• 2002 Guest Faculty, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
• 2001 Best Poster Award in XXVIII Annual Meeting of the Indian Immunology Society, New Delhi, India
• 1998 CSIR Resewarch Associateship awarded
• 1993-1998 Research Fellow, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata (Recipient of CSIR-NET Fellowship)
• 1993 CSIR-NET Fellowship, India for Research and Lectureship
• 1993 Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), India with 93.34 percentile score
• 1991-1993 DBT Fellowship (M.Sc.), Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
• 1998-1991 Merit Scholarship, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
Research Interests (if applicable)
1. Epigenetic landscapes during pathogenesis and treatment of diseases such as urinary tract infections, cancer, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, ESKAPE pathogens, etc.
2. Therapeutic interventions of leishmaniasis and other infectious diseases and cancer using herbal- and/or nano-medicines.
3. Dendritic cell, DNA and nano-particles based prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines against leishmaniasis and other microbial infectious diseases and cancer.
4. Drug repurposing for in silico approach-based antileishmanial therapy.
Department-Wise Information
RESEARCH GRANTS AWARDED
- 2025 – 2027 – Central Council for Research in Homeopathy on “Investigation of chromatin modifications induced by homeopathic medicines in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus – An exploratory study” as PI. Co-PI – Prof. Maharshi Krishna Deb, Dr. Rathin Chakravarty, Dr. Trina Banerjee, Dr. Debdutta Nayak (Rs. 60,19,420/-), Sanction Order No. S-139/2025-26, Dated: 06.05.25, Ongoing
- 2025 – 2027 – Central Council for Research in Homeopathy on “Investigation of homeopathic medicines for activity against drug-resistant Leishmania donovani – An in vitro study and mechanistic insights” as PI. Co-PI – Dr. Ritika Hassija Narula (Rs. 58,62,120/-), Sanction Order No. Awaited, Dated: Awaited, Approved
- 2022 – 2026 – Core Research Grant (CRG) from Science & Engineering Research Board (SERB) on “Development of two-photon fluorescent probes for proto-oncogenic kinases with potential applications in anticancer drug screening and targeted drug delivery” as Co-PI. PI – Dr. Subhankar Singha, Co-PI – Dr. Sankar Prasad Bhuniya (Rs. 37,98,696/-), Sanction Order No. CRG/2022/008799 dated 07 December 2022, Ongoing.
- 2018 – 2019 – Research Group Proposal (50248) on “Nano-antibiotics for infectious diseases” as PI . Co-PI – Dr. Hassan Hemeg, Dr. Hani A. Ozbak.
- 2018 – 2019 – Project on “Antistreptolysin O and antideoxyribonuclease B as biomarkers for tonsillitis compared with routine cultures” as PI. Co-PI – Dr. Hassan Hemeg, Dr. Hani Ozbak, Dr. May Alsayb, Dr. Omar AlHazmi, Dr. Sahar Saad Allah, Dr. Rania Mousa, Dr. Abdullah Zaben Almotairy
- 2017 – 2019 – Project on “Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates among patients at King Fahad Hospital, Madina” as PI. Co-PI – Dr. Hassan Hemeg, Dr. Mohamed Abdelrahman Ahmed, Dr. Khaled Shabaan, Dr. Omar AlHazmi
- 2012-2015 – Indian Council of Medical Research (India) Project on “Leishmanicidal activity of secondary metabolites from Artemisia annua against visceral leishmaniasis” as PI. 2012-00210. File No. 80/845/2011-EDC-II dated 13.03.2012, Completed.
- 2009 – 2014 – Department of Biotechnology (India) Project on “Evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of functionalized nanoparticles in visceral leishmaniasis” as PI (Rs.59.978 lakhs) Sanction Order No. BT/PR10876/NNT/28/137/2008 dated 11.09.2009, Completed.
- 2009–2012 – Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (India) Project on “Antileishmanial activity of Unani drugs against Leishmania donovani in vitro and in vivo” as PI (Rs. 26 lakhs) Sanction Order No. 3-8/2008-CCRUM/EMR dated 04.06.2009, Completed.
- 2008-2012– Department of Biotechnology (India) project on “Bioactivity-guided fractionation of Nyctanthes arbortristris and Artemisia annua extracts for antileishmanial activities against Leishmania donovani” as PI (Rs. 42.93 lakhs) Sanction Order No. BT/PR9715/PBD/17/534/2007 dated 12.03.2008, Completed.
- 2007-2010- Department of Science and Technology-SERC Fast-track proposal for Young Scientists (India) grant, entitled “Vaccination against visceral leishmaniasis using dendritic cells” as PI (Rs. 16.47 lakhs) Sanction Order No. SR/FT/L-102/2006 dated 18.06.2007, Completed.
- 2006 – Hamdard National Foundation, to work on “Comparative efficacy of liposome encapsulated autoclaved L. major (ALM) and autoclaved L. donovani (ALD) against experimental visceral leishmaniasis” as PI (Rs. 0.25 lakhs)
- 2000-2002 – Unassigned Grants of UGC, entitled “Investigation of the vaccine potential of the major surface protein, gp63 of Leishmania donovani in association with different adjuvants” as PI Completed. (Rs. 1,00,000/-)