Jamia Hamdard faculty awarded with the prestigious Newton International Fellowship 2020
New Delhi: Dr Sarwar Beg, Assistant Professor at Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard Beg has awarded with the prestigious Newton International Fellowship 2020 under the competition Round 8 which was open between July to September month of 2020, and exclusively meant for the early career researchers working in India.
The fellowship is funded to provide opportunity to work for 2 years in UK at University of Central Lancashire and subsequently in India at University of Hyderabad for 1 year. The fellowship will commence from March 2021 and will continue for total 3 years upto March 2024.
In the awarded fellowship, Dr. Sarwar will work on “Designing of long-acting surface-engineered nanocarrier system for targeting drugs for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme”. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM; the most aggressive tumor of the brain) is the most common primary malignant brain tumours with extremely poor prognosis and median survival of approximately 12 to 18 months.
Till date, surgical removal followed by radiotherapy and concurrent administration of chemotherapeutic agent has only shown improvement in the quality of life in GBM patients with negligible impact on the mortality rate. In this regard, Dr. Sarwar along with the co-applicants from India and UK will work for developing a novel treatment for the glioma tumors of the brain which can greatly help the patient community in improving the life expectancy.
About Newton International Fellowship
The Newton International Fellowships scheme is meant for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK. This early career international researchers get an opportunity to build links and undertake a research project for an extended period with leading researchers in the UK. The Newton Fellowships are supported by UK Government’s Newton Fund.
For the very first time, The Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) in collaboration with the Royal Society and British Academy, and in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, has designed The Newton International Fellowship for the early career researchers from India, which provides 2 years of research opportunity to work in UK and 1 year of research opportunity to work in India. The fellowship contains an award of the subsistence allowance for the period of 3 years along with research and relocation expenses, and contribution to overheads.
Awarding agency: The Academy of Medical Sciences (The Royal Society, UK) & Department of Biotechnology (Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India)
About Dr. Sarwar Beg
Dr Sarwar Beg is currently serving as Assistant Professor at Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. Prior to joining Hamdard, he was working with Jubilant Lifesciences, Noida, where he was solely responsible for implementing the Quality by Design (QbD) framework for generics and new product development for regulated markets like US, EU and UK.
Dr Sarwar has completed PhD from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and M. Pharm. (Pharmaceutics) from Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi. He has over a decade of experience in systematic development and characterization of novel and nanostructured drug delivery systems using QbD paradigms and computational approaches like Design of Experiments (DoE) and Multivariate Chemometric Techniques.
He has received several young scientist awards at various national and international forums including “SIPRA Innovative Pharma Research Award 2016 and Bronze Medal”; “Eudragit Award 2015; “Budding QbD & ADMET Scientist Award 2014 & 2015”, “Novartis Biotechnology Leadership Camp Award 2012”, and a score of BEST PAPER Awards to his credit. Lately in 2017, he was felicitated by Hon’ble Health Minister of India and Managing Director-Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, with “Sun Pharma Science Foundation-Young Science Scholar 2015″. In May 2019, he has selected for “UGC Start-Up Research Grant” for independently working in the area of research and development.
Currently, Dr Sarwar is also serving as the “Regional Editor (South Asia) & Executive Editor” for the journal Current Nanomedicine, and editorial board member and reviewer of several other journals. Besides, he has trained several academic and industrial scientists through expert lecture series, on-site seminars and hands-on training workshops on various emerging pharma paradigms.