Nazmul Islam

Biography

Dr Nazmul Islam is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Biochemistry & Pharmacology at Keele University. He is a Fellow of Advance HE (FHEA) and a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science (FIBMS). Before joining Keele, Dr Islam was a Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at Teesside University in North Yorkshire (2020–2024).

Prior to that, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (2018–2020) in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London where he worked on developing screening tools for prostate cancer.

Dr Islam earned his PhD in Analytical Biochemistry from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, where he specialised in developing electrochemical biosensor technologies.

His primary research interest lies in the development of novel diagnostic tools, particularly electrochemical biosensors, for detecting clinically relevant disease biomarkers. His research has resulted in 28 articles in leading scientific journals such as Small, Nanoscale, Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Communications, Lab on a Chip, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, and Small Methods. These publications have garnered over 3000 citations, contributing to an h-index of 26.

Research and scholarship

Dr Islam's research focuses on developing low-cost biosensor platforms for personalised diagnostics of cancer and other diseases. His interest includes:

• Low-cost detection of extracellular vesicles and circulating biomarkers including microRNAs.
• Alternative enrichment assay development for extracellular vesicles.
• Lab-on-a-chip platform integrated with smart detection methods (e.g., electrochemical readouts) and bioassays (e.g., immunoassays and nucleic acid analysis).

PhD and Research Opportunities:

If you are interested in applying for an external PhD funding (e.g., commonwealth scholarship) or postdoctoral award (e.g., Newton International Fellowship) and you are looking for a host, please contact Nazmul via email well in advance of the application deadline.

Collaborations and grants awards

Research Projects & External Funding in UK (2021-2024):

• Naz’s laboratory won £100’000 funding for the project entitled 'Enriched eXosomal signatures for PANcreatic Cancer early Detection (EXPAND)' at a sandpit arranged by Cancer Research UK (CRUK), EPSRC, and Pancreatic Cancer UK (PCUK) in collaboration with colleagues from Imperial College London (Dr Piers Boshier), University College London (Dr Pilar Nunez), and Deep Science Venture (Dr Pedro Sampaio).
• Naz received the Royal Society of Chemistry Research Fund (£3980) for the project entitled 'Enhancing specificity in electrochemical exosome sensor'

External Collaborators:

• Dr Sylvain Ladame (Imperial College London)
• Dr Peisan Sharel E (University of Edinburgh)
• Dr Piers Boshier (Imperial College London)
• Dr Pilar Nunez (University College London)
• Dr Ojodomo Achadu (Teesside University)
• Professor John Young (Teesside University)
• Dr Priyanka Dey (University of Portsmouth)
• Dr Mostofa Kamal Masud (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Professor Yusuke Yamauchi (University of Queensland, Australia & Nagoya University, Japan)
• Dr Hoang-Phuong Phan (University of New South Wales, Australia)
• Dr Shihab Uddin (KFUPM/ King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, KSA)