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Dr. Md. Taimur Islam Professor Department of Pathobiology Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science Gazipur Agricultural University Gazipur-1706, BANGLADESH. e-mail: taimurpbl@gau.edu.bd Mobile: +8801712547950

Present Position:

Professor
Department of Pathobiology (PBL)
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science &
Dean, Faculty of Veterinary medicine and Animal Science, Gazipur Agricultural University

Biography:

This is Md. Taimur Islam. I have passed Secondary School certificate Examination (S.S.C) on 1998 and Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination (H.S.C) on 2000. I have passed the “Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M)” degree from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh with First class on 2005. I have also received the degree “Master of Science (M.S.) in Pathology” from the Department of Pathology of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh with CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) 3.969 out of 4.00 on July, 2008. The medium of instruction was English both in DVM and MS study level.

For my M.S. degree I have successfully made a thesis entitled “Evaluation of a Plasmid DNA vaccine encoding Gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH-1) response in male mice”. I had the opportunity to work with a plasmid DNA vaccine (against GnRH) during my MS research work and evaluated its vaccine efficacy in Mice in terms of anti GnRH-I antibody response, suppressed spermatogenesis and fertility disruption. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first study with DNA vaccine in Bangladesh. This study has provided fairly good IgG specific anti-GnRH-1 antibody response following DNA delivery. This could be of value to develop vaccine to control reproduction and alleviate pair due to tumor derived from reproductive axis in human and animals. During my MS, we have established a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol as rapid detection tool for bovine tuberculosis (TB), and eventually published this work in a well reputed journal.

I have also worked as a “Research Scientist” in a DNA vaccine project entitled “DNA vaccine efficacy trial against Gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH-1) in adult male and female rats” from 1/2/2007 to 31/6/2008, funded by Bangladesh Agricultural University Research system (BAURES). I have become proficient on development of diagnostic tools of different infectious diseases, gene delivery, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), real time PCR, ELISA, DNA/RNA extraction, cell culture, cell staining, cloning, transfection, competent cell preparation, SDS-PAGE, western blotting, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, immunocastration, animal handling, problem solving and report writing skills during my research tenure. From my MS study I am routinely involved with the diagnosis of different diseases of large animal and poultry in my department.

After completing my MS in Pathology, I have joined as a “Lecturer” at the Department of Pathology and Parasitology of the Faculty of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine under Patuakhali Science and Technology University of People’s Republic of Bangladesh on 1^st November, 2009. I have promoted to “Assistant Professor” at that Department on 1^st November, 2011. After that I have joined as a “Lecturer” at the Department of Pathobiology of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences under Gazipur Agricultural University of People’s Republic of Bangladesh (previously named as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University) on 1^st July, 2012 and, promoted to “Assistant Professor” and “Associate Professor” at the same department on 1^st July, 2013 and 21^th September, 2017, respectively.

On 2013, I have received Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: Mext) Scholarship to pursue my PhD degree. I received my Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Veterinary Medicine on September, 2017. During my doctoral study, I have worked on viral infection and its diagnosis at the laboratory of Virology and Virus Infections of Faculty of Veterinary Science, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Tokyo, Japan and successfully made a thesis entitled “Studies on coronaviruses causing enteric infections in domestic animals in Japan”. I have revealed that hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) protein on the virion of bovine torovirus (BToV) is retained in the virus isolated from specimens of diseased cattle, but absent in virus passaged several times through cultured cells, works as interferon antagonist, showing the importance of the HE protein in the growth of BToV in cattle and pathogenicity of BToV. These findings were presented at the XIII^th International Nidovirus Symposium, Salamanca, Spain; 14^th Awaji International Forum on Infection and Immunity, Japan and the 63^rd Annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Virology, Fukuoka, Japan and other international conferences.

Furthermore, I have isolated two new strains of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) from pig intestine died during the recent huge outbreak in Japan. In this study, we have described the isolation of new PEDV strains from recent outbreaks in Japan and the phylogenetic relatedness of the newly isolated strains with PEDVs circulating worldwide. Furthermore, we attempted to reveal the antigenic relationship among the new strains and vaccine strain. To evaluate the mechanism by which a large outbreak of PED occurred in Japan, where the majority of sows are vaccinated, we isolated two new strains of PEDV from the intestines of piglets and found that they are more similar to US isolates (group II PEDV) than to the Japanese vaccine strain (group I PEDV). We compared the antigenicity of the vaccine type strain and newly isolated strains by means of a neutralization test using sera from a number of pigs from various farms; the results revealed that they are antigenically similar. This is the first report of the similarity of group I and II viruses using sera from individual pigs vaccinated with group I virus. I have presented this data at 15^th Awaji International Forum on Infection and Immunity, Japan; the 64^th Annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Virology, Sapporo, Japan and 26^th NMS Medical Research Conference for foreign researchers, organized by Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. Moreover, I have published this data on peer reviewed international journal.

We have developed a new candidate vaccine against LCMV using a recombinant replication-incompetent rabies virus (RV) vector. We have constructed a recombinant deficient rabies virus (RV) that express the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) glycoprotein precursor (GPC) (RVP-LCMV/GPC) which is lacking the RV-P gene. By presenting this data, I have achieved The Best Presentation Award at 27^th Research Meeting for Visiting Scholars, Organized by The Medical Association of Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan on 2017.

I have also worked as Principal Investigator (PI) and co-investigator (Co-PI) in several research projects funded by Research Management Committee (RMC) of Gazipur Agricultural University, Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Ministry of Education, Bangladesh. I have already completed ten research projects as PI and one project as Co-PI.

On 2025, I have received Fiscal 2025 JASSO Follow-up Research Fellowship funded by Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) to work as a ‘Visiting Researcher’ at the laboratory of Veterinary Infectious Diseases of Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Tokyo, Japan. Now I am working as a “Professor” at the Department of Pathobiology of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science under Gazipur Agricultural University from 28^th January, 2023 and involved in conducting classes and research. To date, I have published 49 scientific papers in well reputed journals. Presently, I am holding an independent position in my laboratory as a young teacher and trying to develop my own research activities with some small funded projects. I have an intension to improve my knowledge and views in my specific field i.e. Vaccinology, virology, viral infections, avian diseases and modern molecular biotechnology.

EDUCATION:

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Molecular virology and viral infections, development of vaccine against viral diseases, molecular biotechnology and plasmid DNA vaccine technology.

 TEACHING AREAS

General Pathology, Systemic Pathology, Pathology of Infectious diseases, Avian Pathology, Oncology, ClinicalPathology, Immunopathology, Parasitology, Protozoology.