Arif Hossain is the first non-Japanese selected for his innovation in the mechanisms and treatment of Lysosomal diseases
A Bangladeshi researcher, pursuing a doctorate at Osaka University, has been selected as Japan’s best young scientist.
The Japanese Society for Inherited Metabolic Diseases (JSIMD) conferred the award upon Dr Arif Hossain at a ceremony on Thursday.
Every year, JSMID selects a best young scientist of the year.
Arif Hossain is the first non-Japanese in JSMID’s 61-year history, selected for the award for his innovation in the mechanisms and treatment of Lysosomal diseases, reports UNB.
Lysosomes are specialized structures within a living cell that digest excess food particles, and engulf viruses or bacteria. They help in digestion and removing waste from cells in the body. They are the cell’s ‘recycling centre’. When lysosomes fail to digest these substances they build up in cells and become toxic, causing diseases like Gaucher and Fabry.
Born in Bhatipara of Kashiani upazila in Gopalganj district, Arif is the youngest of eleven siblings.
Upon completion of his HSC from Government Bangla College in Dhaka’s Mirpur, he obtained his MBBS degree from Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, and then did his post-graduate studies at the same institution. He then went to Osaka University in Japan for his PhD.
Currently, he is working as a senior researcher of neurometabolic diseases (dysfunction of enzymes or vitamins necessary for a specific chemical reaction in the body) in Japan.