Dr. Zeeshan Mutahir joined the Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (IBB) as lecturer in 2004. Previously, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the Government College Lahore and did his Masters in Biochemistry from IBB, University of the Punjab. Intrigued by the latest techniques in molecular biology and their applications, he has been consistently involved in establishing and strengthening of research laboratories of the Institute. He was invited for a research visit at King’s College London, U.K. where he focused on phospholipids of malaria parasites using HPLC and Mass spectrometry. In 2009, he was offered a scholarship for doctoral studies and obtained his Ph.D. from Lund University, Sweden. He worked with Prof. Jure Piskur and Prof. Birgitte Munch-Petersen on enzymes involved in Nucleotides’ biosynthesis. During his doctoral studies, he won several research and travel grants. He also presented his research at international conferences held at Japan, Canada, Denmark, U.K. and Spain. After completing his Ph.D., he re-joined his parent institute and established a research laboratory focusing on different enzymes (which are involved in DNA metabolism and have potential role in cancer biology and certain novel enzymes involved in degradation of biomass) and biomaterials. Dr. Mutahir has established active research collaboration with both national and international scientists and published his research work in high impact journals He went on a sabbatical at Norwegian University of Life Sciences in 2017 to explore the novel industrial enzymes known as Lytic Polysaccharide Mono-Oxygenases (LPMOs). In 2018-19, he went on a postdoctoral fellowship at Tampere University, Finland where his research project was carried out in collaboration with a renowned Finnish industry called UPM. During his postdoctoral stay in Finland, he contributed to develop industrially important functionalized nanocellulose that facilitates the three-dimensional (3D) cell culture in-vitro.
Dr. Zeeshan Mutahir has been awarded different research grants from Higher Education Commission (HEC), such as start-up grant and research grant under NRPU program. Currently, his research team includes Ph.D. and MS students who are working under his supervision.