Daily Times

Karachi: Muhammad Waqas Usman Hingoro, an award-winning Pakistani scientist who hails from Karachi’s Lyari area, has successfully discovered the cancer-killing mechanism that is applicable to the treatment of a wide-range of cancer types.

Making a major breakthrough in the field of cancer biology, Hingoro, along with a team of international cancer biologists, has unleashed the ability of ‘Extracellular Vesicles (EVs),’ the red blood cells’ component, which may carry drug delivery nanoparticles (NPs) into the affected human body parts as well as the whole organism.

According to his PhD work defended in the City University of Hong Kong, these extracellular vesicles are endogenous carriers with a potent capacity to successfully carry different types of drugs, which can be in the form of RNA, protein or the DNA and can be effectively used to target a variety of cancers.

Titled as “Efficient RNA drug delivery using red blood cell extracellular vesicles,” Hingoro’s breakthrough research has recently been published in the latest edition of the world’s leading science journal known as the ‘Nature Communication.’

Born and raised in Lyari, Usman Hingoro earned his Bachelor’s in Clinical Laboratory in 2010 from the Zainul Abideen (ZA) School of Medical Technology in Karachi. After his graduation, he joined the Aga Khan University Hospital and advanced his research work under the supervision of Dr. Javed Yakoob.

Hingoro successfully published a number of his research papers in internationally-reputed scientific journals. In 2013, he received the Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) for a Master’s programme and then got selected as a Fulbright PhD candidate by the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), where Hingoro carried out his groundbreaking study under the supervision of Dr. Minh TN Le. His research work is available online.

In recognition of his research contributions, the ‘Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Biomedical Sciences Forum’ has recently awarded him the best prize at the International Symposium of Graduate Students, which was held in June 16, 2018. He was chosen out of 150+ students from across the world.

Published in Daily Times, July 1^st 2018.