NSTU

Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering

Academic Profile of Afrin Sultana Chowdhury

Afrin Sultana Chowdhury

	Assistant Professor
	International Joint Masters in Innovative Medicine (Oxford University, Heidelberg University, Uppsala University)
	afrin.bge@nstu.edu.bd
	+8801834066794
	Blood Group: B+
	Joining Date : 2018-09-14
	Research Interests: Oncology, Immunology, Molecular biology, Epidemiology

About Afrin Sultana Chowdhury

Afrin Sultana Chowdhury is currently working as a faculty member of the Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering at Noakhali Science and Technology University. As an Erasmus Mundus scholar Afrin gained research experience at Oxford University on inflammation biology. She also worked in different top-ranked research organizations including Karolinska Institute, Sweden; German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).

At present, she is supervising several wet lab and bioinformatics research projects related to genetic polymorphisms and infectious diseases. She is an ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals including Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics journals.

Apart from her research career, Afrin is engaged with different leadership activities. Currently, she is working with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as a Young Ambassador with a vision to promote higher education and research in Germany. She is an executive member of the managerial board of the 'Network of Young Biotechnologists of Bangladesh' which is the first national platform for the biotechnologists of Bangladesh.

During free time Afrin likes to travel and engage with cultural activities. Until now she has traveled to more than twenty countries.

Publications

● Hossan MI, Chowdhury AS*, Hossain MU, Khan MA, Mahmood TB, Mizan S, ''Immunoinformatics aided-design of Novel Multi-epitope base peptide vaccine against Hendra henipavirus through Proteome Exploration'', Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, 2021, doi.org/10.1016/j.imu.2021.100678 (Impact Factor: 2.11)

● Hossain MS, Hossan MI, Mizan S, Moin AT, Yasmin F, Akash A, Powshi SN, Chowdhury AS*. Immunoinformatics approach to designing a multi-epitope vaccine against Saint Louis Encephalitis Virus. Informatics in Medicine Unlocked, 2021; 22. doi.org/10.1016/j.imu.2020.100500 (Impact Factor: 2.11)

● Hasan MA, Khan MA, Sharmin T, Hasan Mazumder MH, Chowdhury AS, “Identification of putative drug targets in Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) using computer-aided protein data analysis”, Gene, 2016, 575(1), 132-43 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2015.08.044 (Impact Factor: 4.09)

● Datta A, Hasan Mazumder MH, Chowdhury AS, Hasan MA, “Functional and Structural Consequences of Damaging Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in Human Prostate Cancer Predisposition Gene RNASEL”, BioMed Research International, 2015, doi.org/10.1155/2015/271458 (Impact Factor.:3.41)

● Mahmood TB, Saha A, Hossan MI, Mizan S, Sufian SMA, Chowdhury AS*, "A Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Analysis to Reveal Genomic and Proteomic Mutation Landscapes of SARS-CoV-2 in South Asia", Current Research in Microbial Sciences, 2021, doi.org/10.1016/j.crmicr.2021.100065

● Mahmood TB, Chowdhury AS*, Hasan M, Aakil MM, Hossan MI, "Evaluation of the Susceptibility and Fatality of the Lung Cancer Patients towards the COVID-19 Infection- A Systemic Approach through Analyzing the ACE2, CXCL10 and their Co-expressed Genes", Current Research in Microbial Sciences, 2021, doi.10.1016/j.crmicr.2021.100022

● Hasan MA, Hasan Mazumder MH, Chowdhury AS, Datta A, Khan MA, “Molecular docking study of malaria drug target enzyme transketolase in Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 portends the novel approach to its treatment”, Source Code for Biology and Medicine, 2015, 22(10):7 doi.org/10.1186/s13029-015-0037-3 (Impact Factor: 0.74)

● Hasan MA, Hussain H, Chowdhury AS, Dhar SB, Abedin M, Fima N, “Computational identification of potential microRNAs and their targets from expressed sequence tags of marijuana (Cannabis sativa)”, Meta Gene, 2016, doi.org/10.1016/j.mgene.2016.10.002 (Impact Factor: 0.89)

● Oany AR, Sharmin T, Chowdhury AS, Jyoti TP, Hasan MA, “Highly conserved region in Ebola virus RNA dependent RNA polymerase maybe act as a universal novel peptide vaccine target: a computational approach”, in silico Pharmacology, 2015, 3(1):7 10.1186/s40203-015-0011-4

● Chowdhury AS*, Tamanna S, "Radiation-induced side effects in breast cancer patients and factors affecting them", Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 2020, 6(3), 138-48 https://doi.org/10.3329/ajmbr.v6i2.48044

● Chowdhury AS*, Tamanna S, Kar K, "Role of macrophage in atherosclerosis", Asian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 2020, 6(3), 366-374 https://doi.org/10.3329/ajmbr.v6i3.49784

Experiences and Activities

Work Experiences

Feb 2019–July 2019 Visiting Researcher
Medical Science Division, Oxford University, UK
Research Project: Role of Btk inhibitors on macrophage chemotaxis

Sep 2018–Jan 2019 Masters Internship
Dept. of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
Research Project: Defining the role of IkBNS in lymphocyte fate decisions.

Nov 2017– Jul 2018 Masters Internship
Dermato Oncology lab, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)
Research Project: Role of BEX1 and STC1 in NRAS mutated melanoma

Mar 2018– Jul 2018 Assistant Researcher
Immunobiochemistry Lab, Heidelberg University, Germany

Jul 2016– Dec 2016 Research Fellow
Emerging Infections & Parasitology Lab, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b)
Research Project: Efficiency of Current Polio Vaccine in Bangladesh

Nov 2015– Jun 2016 Masters Thesis
International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b)
MS Thesis: Role of Giardia lamblia in Child Growth Impairment and Comparison of its Detection by RT-PCR and Rapid Membrane Enzyme Immunoassay.

Feb 2015– May 2015 Research Assistant
Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Science University (CVASU), Bangladesh
Research Project: Molecular Determination of Bird Sexing in Bangladesh

Honours and awards

▪ Joint Research Project Grant (2020)- awarded by the NSTU Research Cell

▪ Best Research Presentation Award (2020) at the national congress of Network of Young Biotechnologists of Bangladesh

▪ Individual Research Grant (2019)- awarded by the NSTU Research Cell

▪ Joint Research Project Grant (2019)- awarded by the NSTU Research Cell

▪ EIT Health Travel Grant (2018) for scientific poster presentation at the Industry and Innovation day conference in Germany

▪ Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Scholarship (2017)- awarded by European Commission

▪ Award of Excellence (2016)- awarded by Chittagong University for scoring the highest GPA in M.Sc.

▪ Chittagong University Merit scholarship (2015)- awarded by Chittagong University for scoring the highest GPA in B.Sc.

▪ Best Poster Award (2015) at the DNA Day Poster Competition organized by the University of Dhaka

▪ Champion at Biotech Poster Competition (2014) organized by the National Institute of Biotechnology, Bangladesh (NIB)

▪ First Runner-Up at Biotech Business Idea Competition (2014) organized by the National Institute of Biotechnology, Bangladesh (NIB)

Presented Posters

▪ “Role of IkBNS in B cell differentiation in to plasma cell” in the Industry and Innovation Day 2019, jointly organized by EIT health and Heidelberg University

▪ “Functional and Structural Consequences of Damaging Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in Human Prostate Cancer Predisposition Gene RNASEL” in the DNA Day 2016, organized by Dhaka University

Speaker

Guest speaker at 'Network of Young Biotechnologists of Bangladesh 1st Biotech Career Fest' on Feb 2021
Guest speaker at 'Education USA higher study program' on Jan 2020

Volunteer Experience

1. DAAD Young Ambassador

DAAD- German Academic Exchange Service (Aug 2018 - Present)

2. Manager

Network of Young Biotechnologists of Bangladesh (NYBB) (Jan 2021 - Present)