Director of ShabLab and Zebrafish Avatar Lab at Khalifa University (KU). Before joining KU, he was an Early Career Investigator at Harvard Medical School and Associate Bioengineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA.
Dr. Shabir Hassan is the Director of ShabLab and Zebrafish Avatar Lab at Khalifa University (KU). Before joining KU, he was an Early Career Investigator at Harvard Medical School and Associate Bioengineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, USA. His main focus of research has been devising in vitro platforms of diseases such as cancer and different tissues for drug discovery and drug delivery applications. Additionally, his interest revolves around 3D bioprinting of disease models to study genetic and rare diseases. He has an immense interest in bioimaging platforms such as mini-optical tomographic systems for studying 3D in vitro lab models.
He has won many awards for his academic and research excellence. Some notable ones include Certificate of Merit for academic excellence from University of Kashmir, Department of Biotechnology Fellowship from the Government of India, Endeavour Award from the Australian Government, two consecutive awards in Early and Advanced Mobility grant categories from the Swiss National Science Foundation for his scientific endeavors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School, Excellence in Mentorship from Harvard Medical School/BWH, Best Oral Presentation Award (SYIS) from the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Asia-Pacific Chapter Conference, held in Hong Kong, Excellence in Research from Yonsei University, and the BRICS Excellence Award 2025 for Promoting Research and Education across borders and cultures.
He has published more than 75 research papers in international journals of repute. His developed mini microscope was recognized as one of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Hot Paper. He has also been instrumental for innovations in fabricating 3D self-oxygenating artificial tissues for implants in volumetric tissue losses and has delivered numerous talks including one as a resource person for the innovations in frugal imagers studying in vitro disease models at the Ramon Cajal painting exhibition in MIT museum in 2018.
Dr. Hassan serves as an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Biomaterials Science. He served as Founding Associate Editor for MIT Science Policy Review (MIT, USA) in 2020. Additionally, he edits special issues for Polymers (MDPI), Frontiers in Pharmacology, etc.