Sajid Umar, DVM, MPhil, PhD
Sajid Umar is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Assistant Professor of Global Health at Duke Kunshan University China. Dr. Umar is a deputy director of Emerging Infectious Diseases & One Health Research program. His research experience and expertise include epidemiology of emerging infectious diseases, particularly zoonotic diseases that occur at the human and animal interface. Over the years, he has gained considerable laboratory experience at BSL-1 to BSL-3 environments using serological and molecular diagnostic techniques and has worked extensively in multiple countries on epidemiological studies. His primary research interests are in identifying occupational diseases associated with respiratory viruses among persons with occupational contact with livestock, companion animals and poultry by using innovative sampling techniques. Furthermore, he works on the epidemiology and molecular detection of infectious viruses of human and animal origin (influenza viruses, parainfluenza, RSV, coronaviruses, enteroviruses, and adenoviruses etc.), antimicrobial resistance, monitoring zoonosis and reverse zoonosis events at interface of animals and vulnerable human populations who have intense contact with animal reservoirs. In addition to epidemiological research, he has a strong passion for global health and scientific research capacity building. This includes student trainings, the development of new collaborative international research networks and laboratory infrastructure to advance diagnostic approaches for the surveillance of viral respiratory pathogens in healthcare settings, livestock farms, schools, airports, and subways.
Dr. Umar is based at Duke Kunshan University, an innovative liberal arts university located close to Shanghai. Duke Kunshan University is a Sino-American partnership of Duke University, Wuhan University and Kunshan city in Jiangsu province to create a world-class university offering a range of academic programs for students from China and throughout the world. A nonprofit, joint-venture institution, Duke Kunshan University was granted the accreditation approval by China’s Ministry of Education in September 2013. At Duke Kunshan University, he teaches courses on Emerging infectious disease, evolution of infectious disease, evolution of health and disease, and microbial ecology. He has also taught an interdisciplinary miniterm course on “Global Health Laboratory Techniques”.
Dr. Umar earned a Ph.D. in the discipline of pathology and virology (2017) from the National Veterinary School of Toulouse, France and worked with renowned French pathologist Maxence Delverdier and virologist Mariette Ducatez. He earned Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Veterinary Pathology (2011) and a graduation in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) (2008) from the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS), Lahore. Before academia, he worked as Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2018-2019) at Istanbul University, Turkey and Duke Kunshan University, China (2020-2021) and worked with Gregory Charles Gray and Benjamin Anderson.
Students
Sophia Atingo Kuve is from Kenya-Africa and currently a master student at Duke Kunshan University, China. Her research interest is antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which has recently been declared one of the major global public health threats by the WHO. In the past, she has earned a Master of Science in Medical Microbiology from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. She also hold a Bachelor of Technology in Applied Biology and currently pursuing a Master of Science in Global Health. She is senior Biological Technician at the Technical University of Kenya (currently on study leave) and a Research assistant (Student worker) at the Duke Kunshan University and a Global Strategy Consultant (Intern) at Xiyi MDCE. She has over 8 years of work experience in Medical Research, Academics and Clinical Trials.
Yixi Cheng is an undergraduate student at Duke Kunshan University majoring in Molecular Bioscience/Cell and Molecular Biology. She is from Jiangsu, China. Her academic interests include cancer chemical biology and women’s diseases and health. She joined DKU One Health Research Team and became a research assistant in January 2022. She looks forwards to learning more knowledge and skills here and applying what she learned into practice to contribute to social health problems at the same time.
