Diseases of DNA Repair

Shamim Ahmad after obtaining his Master’s degree in Botany from PatnaUniversity, Bihar, India and his PhD in Molecular Genetics from Leicester University, England, joined Nottingham Polytechnic as Grade 1 lecturer and subsequently promoted to SL post. Nottingham Polytechnic subsequently became Nottingham TrentUniversity where, after serving for about 35 years, he took early retirement to spend the remaining time writing books and conducting full‑time research. For more than three decades he worked on different areas of biology including thymineless death in bacteria, genetic control of nucleotide catabolism, development of anti‑AIDS drugs, control of microbial infection of burns, phages of thermophilic bacteria and microbialflora of Chernobyl after nuclear accident. But his primary interest, which started 25 years ago, is DNA damage and repair, particularly near UV photolysis of biological compounds, production of reactive oxygen species and their implications on human health including skin cancer and xeroderma pigmentosum. He is also investigatingphotolysis of non‑biological compounds such as 8‑methoxypsoralen+UVA,mitomycin C, and nitrogen mustard and their importance in psoriasis treatment and in Fanconi anemia. In 2003 he received a prestigious “Asian Jewel Award” in Britain for “Excellence in Education”. He is also the Editor of Molecular Mechanisms of Fanconi Anaemia, Molecular Mechanisms of Xeroderma Pigmentosum, MolecularMechanisms of Ataxia Telangiectasia and Molecular Mechanisms of CockayneSyndrome published by Landes Bioscience.