Dr Minhaz Uddin Ahmed

I am an Associate Professor at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), and I am passionate about developing biosensors and diagnostic technologies with significant applications in nanobiotechnology, clinical, food and environmental chemistry. My academic background includes a Ph.D. in Chemical Materials Science from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), and I have worked as a post-doctoral fellow with renowned professors at esteemed universities worldwide, such as Duke University, Osaka University, and INRS-EMT Canada. Throughout my career, my research contributions have been widely recognized and celebrated with numerous awards and accolades, including the prestigious Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) young scientist award and the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) post-doctoral fellowship. I am proud to have extensive research experience and expertise in the field of biosensors and biomaterials, bioengineering and nanobiotechnology.

I am pleased to serve as a member of the Editorial Board in several reputed journals in related areas of expertise and regularly review research articles from the world’s top-ranked associated journals. I carry out research activities in several exciting areas, including Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Electroanalysis, DNA chips, and Nucleic Acid Sensors, CRISPR-Cas, Apta and Immunosensors, and Point of Care Devices. My vision is to develop high-sensitive, low-cost, point of care biosensing and diagnostics platforms that can help revolutionize healthcare and make a significant impact in the fields of food safety and environmental protection.

VISITING RESEARCH FELLOW
School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW, Australia (2022)
School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia (2022)
National Inst. of Technology Karnataka, India (2022)
College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, China (2015)
School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan (2011)
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, USA (2011)

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Publons®/WOS® Peer Review Award, 2018 and 2019
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting Travel Grant, 2007
*TOP 2% scientists in the World: 2019, 2020 and 2021
(*The data has been published by the Stanford University team, led by Prof. John PA Loannidis,
published the PLoS Biol 18(10): e3000918.

Course Taught:
SC 4363 Modern Analytical Techniques
SC 4368 Biosensors Biochips and Nanobiotechnology
SC 4366 Food Chemistry and Chemical Analysis of Food
SC 2402 Biomarkers, Diseases and Diagnostics
SB 4314 Biotechnology
SB 4340 Nutritional Biochemistry
SR 5101 Patents and Commercialization

EDUCATION

Post Doctoral Training:
JSPS Fellow: Osaka University: 2008-2009, Japan
DARPA Research Associate: Duke University: 2009-2010, USA
NSERC Fellow: INRS-EMT: 2010-2012, Canada

Ph.D. in Chemical Materials Science from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST)
(with 18 months of full-time attachment at Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Japan)
MSc and BSc: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka, Bangladeh.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

DNA chips, nucleic acids, and aptasensors
Immuno and personalized diagnostics
Nanoanalytical systems for biomaterials
Artificial enzyme or nanozyme
Printed biosensors and microfabrication
CRISPR-based biosensors
Novel transducers

FUTURE PROJECTS

GRANT DETAILS

2022-2024: Research Grant as a Principal Investigator; Grant# FIC047; Development of amplification free nucleic acid diagnostics for small molecules. (Grant amount, 68,468.00 BND: for 2 years).
2021-2023: Research Grant as a Principal Investigator; Grant# FIC032; Development of CRISPR-Cas-driven nucleic acid diagnostics. (Grant amount, 69,999.80 BND: for 2 years).
2021-2023: Grant as a co-Principal Investigator: Development of hydrogel-based biosensors for the detection of cancer biomarkers (Grant amount, 16000.00 BND: for 2 years).
2020-2023: Research Grant as a Principal Investigator; Grant# FIC25; Nanoscaled aptasensors for the detection of multiple clinical biomarkers (Grant amount, 69,500.00 BND: for 3 years).
2020-2022: ASEAN-India S&T Development Fund (AISTDF); as a co-Principal Investigator; Grant# CRD/2019/000158 (Grant amount; 48,28,192 INR: for 2.5 years).
2018-2020: UBD Research Grant as a Principal Investigator; Grant# FIC10; The development of novel nanostructured biosensors for multiple food allergens (Grant amount, 60,900.00 BND: for 2 years).
2014-2017: Brunei Research Council’s grant; BRC-10 as a Principal Investigator; A versatile signal amplification strategy for biomarkers identification using flexible substrates (2,324,048.40 BND; for 4 years).
2015-2017: Brunei Research Council’s grant; BRC-4 as a co-Principal Investigator; Multidisciplinary research, including sensor development, on salivary biomarkers. (Grant amount 1.2 million BND: for 2 years).
2013-2014: UBD Research Grant as a Principal Investigator; Graphene-based platform for the detection for porcine biomarkers (Grant amount 21700.00 BND: for 2 years).
2008-2010: Grant-In-Aid: as a co-P.I to develop smart microfluidics device for pathogen: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for Scientific Research. (Grant amount 1.5 million Japanese Yen: for 2 years).

RESEARCH OUTPUTS (PATENTS, SOFTWARE, PUBLICATIONS, PRODUCTS)

US PATENTS:

3. USA Patent: US10889854B2: Issue date: 12/01/2021; System and method for immobilization free electrochemiluminescence dye for multi-species detection.
2. USA Patent: US10605806B2: Issue date: 31/03/2020; Electrochemical immunosensor and method of use for analyte detection.
1. USA Patent: US10465244B2: Issue date: 05/11/2019; Electrochemical DNA Biosensor using graphene biochip for species identification.

PATENTS PENDING:
5. Minhaz Uddin Ahmed, Nura Fazira Noor Azam, and Noor Faizah Mohd-Naim; Electrochemiluminescence immunosensor for tropomyosin using carbon nanohorns/Nafion/Fe3O4@Pd screen-printed electrodes (2021)
4. Minhaz Uddin Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Electrochemiluminescence immunosensor for the detection of haptoglobin, US 2020/0217801 A1 (2020).
3. Minhaz Uddin Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, and Noor Faizah Mohd-Naim, Nanocomposite modified CdSe QDs electrode for a label-free and highly sensitive ECL immunosensor, US and Brunei Patent Pending (2017).
2. Minhaz Uddin Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan and David Koh, A nanocomposite based immunosensor for detecting biomarker and method thereof, US and Brunei Patent Pending (2017).
1. Minhaz Uddin Ahmed and Sharmili Roy, System and method for immobilization free electrochemiluminescence DNA detection using a luminophore dye for multi-species detection, Brunei file# BN/N/2016/0064. (2016)

DOCTORAL STUDENT SUPERVISION
Successfully completed Ph.D. (8):
Dr. Syazana Abdullah Lim (Session Jan, 2013): Reg# 12H8356
Dr. Sharmili Roy (Session Jan, 2013); Reg# 13H0251
Dr. Nur Thaqifah Saliah (Session Jan 2014); Reg# 13H8502
Dr. Mohammad Rizwan (Session Jan, 2015); Reg# 14H0651
Dr. Nur Azureen Mohamad (Session Jan 2016:); Reg# 15H8181
Dr. Juthi Adhikari (Session Jan 2017); Reg# 17H020
Dr. Chitra P Kurup (Session Jan 2019); Reg# 18H8208
Dr. Hong Shyang Pei (Session Jan 2020); Reg# 19h8286

CONSULTANCY

Journal Editorial:
Associate Editor: RSC Advances, UK 2015-2022.
Associte Editor: Sensing Technology, 2023-to date
Editorial Board Member: Sensor International, 2018- to date.
Editorial Board Member: Biointerface Research in Applied Chemistry, 2019- to date.
Editorial Board Member: Bioengineering International. 2019- to date.
Editorial Board Member: Vietnam J. of Sci. Tech. 2021- to date.
Associate Editor: Scientia Bruneiana, 2016- to date.

Industry, Institute, or Organisation Collaboration

Imperial College, UK
Cranfield University, UK
The University of Queensland, Aus.
Harvard University, USA
Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia
Universiti Technology Brunei
University of Chittagong, Bangladesh
INRS-EMT, University of Quebec, Canada
CIGIT of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Vietnam Academy of Sciences, Vietnam
National University of Singapore, Singapore
National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India
RMIT University, Australia
UNSW, Australia
New York University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

2014-2017
RESEARCH LEAD- UBD-BRUNEI ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD-BRUNEI RESEARCH INCENTIVE SCHEME (BRISc)
Appointed by the Vice Chancellor of the Universiti Brunei Darussalam

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, or ACADEMIC BENEFITS

We are aiming at developing reliable and yet simple methodologies that could allow biological detection to be carried out for various applications, particularly on the aspects of food safety, healthcare and environmental protection which deserve public awareness.