Umar F. Abubakar

I am Umar Faruk Abubakar, a researcher and academic in the field of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, with a strong interest in infectious diseases, vector-borne diseases, molecular immunology and epidemiology.

I obtained my first degree in Medical Laboratory Science, with specialization in Immunology. I later earned a second degree (M.Sc.) in Biotechnology in the Department of Biochemistry, Bayero University Kano. My M.Sc. thesis was supervised by Prof. Sulaiman S. Ibrahim, leading to a published paper in the Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases journal (mdpi). This combination of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology has enabled me to have multidisciplinary approach on research and to integrate classical laboratory methods with advanced molecular and bioinformatics approaches.

Currently, I work at Northwest University Kano, where I contribute in academic activities and research within the biomedical sciences and life sciences in general. At Northwest University, I have participated in managerial roles such as Head of Immunology and Molecular Laboratory and Head of Laboratory for a TETFUND NRF grant on HPV among women of child-bearing ages in Northwest Nigeria.

Over the past decade, my research interests have focused on infectious and emerging diseases, particularly viral and parasitic pathogens of public health importance. My previous research outputs include undergraduate work on CD4+ T cell count in patients co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis B virus (DOI:10.5829/idosi.wjms.2013.8.3.74111); M.Sc. research on molecular characterization of antimalarial resistance genes, including the kelch13 (DOI:10.3390/tropicalmed5020085), pfmdr1 and pfcrt (DOI:10.3390/diseases9010006) in Plasmodium falciparum; as well as molecular epidemiology of Hepatitis C virus genotypes in relation to viral load (DOI: http://doi.org/10.15580/GJMS.2017.2.021317025). These studies demonstrate my strong interest in molecular surveillance, host immune responses, pathogen evolution, and translational biomedical research.

Currently, I am pursuing a PhD in the Department of Medical Laboratory Science, at Bayero University Kano with research focused on “Molecular Surveillance of Aedes Mosquitoes, Aedes-borne Arboviruses, and the Human Immune Responses Elicited by Arboviral Infections from Kano, Nigeria.” My work (which is co-supervised by Prof. Sulaiman S. Ibrahim) specifically aim to investigates the burden of the major arboviruses such as Dengue virus (DENV), Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), Zika virus (ZIKV), and Yellow Fever virus (YFV) in humans from northern Nigeria, combined with vector incrimination in transmission of the viruses. The activities I am conducting include molecular detection of the arboviruses in humans and Aedes, assessment of cytokine gene polymorphisms, and host immune interactions. I take advantage of the strong entomology expertise and equipment available for molecular analysis at the CTID^R to achieve my aims.