ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani scholar hailing from Matta Mughal Khel, a remote village of district Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been awarded a doctorate degree in Organic Chemistry by the University of Oxford.
Amjad Khan graduated from the University of Oxford for the degrees of Master of Science (by research) and Doctor of Philosophy in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford. He applied Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques to study the mode of drug binding to BBOX and bacterial potassium ion efflux (Kef) proteins.
Human BBOX is currently a drug target for the treatment of ischemic heart diseases, while scientists at Oxford were currently targeting bacterial Kef system for the development of novel antibiotics showing novel mode of action. During his PhD studies, he also served as an events coordinator and secretary for the Oxford University Pakistan society.
He said that it was due to hard work that he achieved his goal of becoming a Doctor of Philosophy in Organic Chemistry from the prestigious University of Oxford. When asked about his future plans, he said that he would like to work with the government in education policy.
“Our current education policy from primary to higher education is simply not designed to address the socio-economic challenges Pakistan is facing.” He regretted that education in Pakistan has become a business with little focus on research and development. He said that it was hard to find any internationally approved drug, discovered in Pakistan for the treatment of widespread diseases such as Hepatitis, Cancer?
With even an higher aim for setting up a National Organisation, Amjad said that he would like to finance the education of those children in Pakistan who work or beg for their families as source of income instead of going to school.
