Dr. Syed Saad Bin Qasim
(Director Material Science)
Dr. Syed Saad B Qasim graduated with a degree in dentistry from Karachi, Pakistan in 2006. Thereon he went to QueenMary University of London, England in 2007 to pursue a Masters degree in Dental Biomaterials and a worked on Polyurethne based antimicrobial membranes for Guided tissue regeneration as the thesis project. In 2008 he worked as an academic in local dental colleges in Pakistan in the Dental Materials department, using his skills and experience acquired abroad to rejuvenate the existing biomaterials curriculum. He introduced problem-based learning (PBL) and conducted scientific sessions on research and development in the field of Dental Materials during 2008 to 2010 in Karachi. In 2010, he was offered a position at The King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a research scholar in Dental Biomaterials Research Chair. There is worked under Prof. Abdul Aziz Al-Khuraif on projects like color stability of dental resin composites slowly developing interest in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. He was also able to establish bridges with research clusters across the globe during this time by inviting Prof Amr Fawzy from National University of Singapore, Prof Ihtehsam ur Rehman, Prof Jukka Pekka Matinlinna from Hong Kong University and Prof Pekka Valittu from Turku, Finland. This later led to a graduate degree program.
In 2012 he was offered a position at the University of Sheffield as a Doctoral Student in Materials Science and Engineering where he worked on Functionally Graded Guided tissue regenerative membrane for periodontal tissue engineering. The project led to publications in journals like Acta Biomaterialia, Dental Materials and Journal of Polymer Stability and Degradation. The project involved synthesizing porous and non-porous scaffolds using freeze gelation and electrospinning. Comprehensive in-vitro characterization and also involved handling Human embryonic stem cell derived mesenchymal progenitors (hESMP’s) and MG63. After completing his PhD, he worked as a part time Oral health product development specialist in Imperial Worldwide, Birmingham, England for 6 months and was offered a position as an Assistant Professor at Dar Al Uloom University, Faculty of Dentistry, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2018 he joined University of Oslo, Norway, Department of Biomaterials as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate and worked on Developing an in-vitro model for peri-implantitis. Simultaneously he also on drug delivery templates for Periodontal lesions. During this time, he was also able to clear License in Dental Surgery Part 1 from the Royal College of Surgeon of England.
In 2019 November he joined Kuwait University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Bioclinical Sciences. In 2020 he was able to publish 8 manuscripts with 3 first author publications with a total impact factor of 22.957 and an article in Nature (Scientific Reports) was also the highlight of year 2020. Dr. Saad is also a consultant for 2 ongoing projects with Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement for Science (KFAS). Besides being interested in tissue engineering is likes Football, Table tennis, Fishing and being outdoors. Dr. Saad is also a food enthusiast and likes cooking in his spare time.