Dr Muhammad Saeed Joined LUMS in 2014 as an Associate Professor. He established the Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry (BMC) group in The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Originally trained as synthetic organic chemist, he has extensive postdoctoral research experience at the interface of chemistry and biology. He is interested to address the modern challenges in biological sciences and medicinal chemistry by using the tools of organic chemistry. More specifically, he pursues rational antiviral and anticancer drug designing and discovery by using modern day techniques of computational modeling, protein dynamics and simulations, supported by the conventional wet-chemistry of organic synthesis and high-throughput screening of synthetic compounds and natural products.
Dr Saeed received his PhD degree in organic chemistry from Eberhard-Karls University of Tuebingen, Germany under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dr (hc mult) Wolfgang Voelter, after accomplishing total syntheses of several natural products and medicinal analogs using the chirality and topology of abundant carbohydrates. After PhD, he joined the research group of Prof. Ercole Cavalieri, DSc at the Eppley Cancer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, USA, where he participated as chemical biologist in mechanistic investigation of cancer initiation by estrogens and related carcinogenic compounds. Before joining LUMS, he has also spent some time in the Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, where he worked as a visiting assistant professor as well as conducted research as postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Amnon Kohen, DSc in the area of development of radiopharmaceuticals as positron emission tomography (PET) tracers. He has published around 50 research articles in reputed international journals, such as J. Biol. Chem., Int. J. Cancer, Free Rad. Biol. Med. Chem. Res. Toxicol., and Tetrahedron Lett. His is currently investigating proteases of different viruses (COVID-19, dengue, HCV) as drug targets for designing efficient direct-acting antivirals (DAAs).
Click here to view Dr. Saeed’s research group webpage
| Title | Publication | Author | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Probing Solid-Supported Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal Salts-Based Catalysts in the Multicomponent Synthesis of Acridine-1,8-diones: Box???Behnken and Density Functional Theory (DFT) Study | Chemistryselect | Ali N., Sarfaraz S., Asif H., Abbas M., Al-Rashida M., Saeed M., Rana S., Ayub K., Hameed A., | 2025 |
| Fenton activated and visible light triggered trimetallic FeZnAl-LDH for remediation of Crystal violet dye | Journal of Molecular Structure | Nazir M.A., Kumar O.P., Ali R., Saeed M.A., Ahmad A., Rehman A.U., Rosaiah P., Zoubi W.A., Shah S.S.A., | 2025 |
| Synthesis, mechanistic insights, and anticancer evaluation of novel 2-aroylbenzo[b]thiophen-3-ols: A DFT and Hirshfeld surface analysis | Journal of Molecular Structure | Mukhtar A., Iftikhar A., Maqbool M., Faisal A., Ayub K., Yousuf S., Saeed M., | 2025 |
| Next generation MXene based materials for electrochemical sensor: A critical review | Journal of Molecular Structure | Ullah S., Nazir M.A., Saeed M.A., Ullah S., Hossain I., Assiri M.A., Tamang T.L., Janusas G., | 2025 |
| Fabrication of CuWO4@MIL-101 (Fe) nanocomposite for efficient OER and photodegradation of methylene blue | Heliyon | Khan M., Ahmed M.M., Akhtar M.N., Sajid M., Riaz N.N., Asif M., Kashif M., Shabbir B., Ahmad K., Saeed M., Shafiq M., Shabir T., | 2024 |
| Optimization study and application of box-behnken model for probing eggshell supported transition metals based catalysts to synthesize hydrazone & dihydropyrimidinones | Scientific Reports | Perveen R., Latif F., Abbas M., Ayub K., Sarfaraz S., Saeed M., Rana S., Al-Rashida M., Nawaz M.A., Hameed A., | 2024 |
| Development of self-cleaning and antibacterial properties on cotton fabric using silver nanoparticles and PFOTS | SPE Polymers | Khan M., Saeed M.A., Ullah S., Repon M.R., Pranta A.D., Yunusov N., Hossain M.M., | 2024 |
| rt Synthesis of 3-methyl-N-((4???-(3-methylbenzamido)-[1,1???-biphenyl]-4-yl)carbamothioyl)benzamide, X-ray structural analysis, DFT-guided investigation, Hirshfeld analysis and docking to jack bean urease | Journal of Molecular Structure | Younas F., Saeed A., Hokelek T., Schulzke C., Tahira S., Elvers B.J., Saeed M., | 2024 |
| Iron-catalysed C???H ortho-arylation of edaravone, a promising monoamine oxidase-B inhibitor | Tetrahedron | Asghar S., Manzotti M., Atkins A., Tailor S., Sparkes H.A., Saeed M., Bedford R.B., | 2024 |
| Facile synthesis of substituted 2-aroylbenzo[b]thiophen-3-ols to form novel triazole hybrids using click chemistry | Rsc Advances | Mukhtar A., Hussain A., Younas F., Yousuf S., Saeed M., | 2024 |
| Repurposing of investigational cancer drugs: Early phase discovery of dengue virus NS2B/NS3 protease inhibitors | Archiv Der Pharmazie | Saleem H.N., Kousar S., Jiskani A.H., Sohail I., Faisal A., Saeed M., | 2023 |
| The photocatalytic and antibacterial potential of highly efficient S-scheme binary S-gC3N4@Co-zinc ferrite nanocomposite | Optical Materials | Hassan S.S., Javed M., Akhtar M.N., Qamar M.A., Ahmed N., Saeed M., Aroosh K., Khan S., Asif S., | 2023 |
| Exploring chromone sulfonamides and sulfonylhydrazones as highly selective ectonucleotidase inhibitors: Synthesis, biological evaluation and in silico study | Bioorganic Chemistry | Younus H.A., Saeed M., Mahmood A., Jadoon M.S.K., Hameed A., Asari A., Mohamad H., Pelletier J., Sevigny J., Iqbal J., al-Rashida M., | 2023 |
| Plasma-based ozonolysis of lignin waste materials for the production of value-added chemicals | Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery | Muazzam R., Hafeez A., Uroos M., Saeed M., Rehman F., Muhammad N., | 2023 |
| Part-II: an update of Schiff bases synthesis and applications in medicinal chemistry-a patent review (2016-2023) | Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents | Younus H.A., Saleem F., Hameed A., Al-Rashida M., Al-Qawasmeh R.A., El-Naggar M., Rana S., Saeed M., Khan K.M., | 2023 |
| Endophytic bacteria of Fagonia indica Burm. F revealed to harbour rich secondary antibacterial metabolites | Plos One | Rahman L., Mukhtar A., Ahmad S., Rahman L., Ali M., Saeed M., Shinwari Z.K., | 2022 |
| Synthesis, X-Ray crystallography and HF/DFT analysis of N(diethylcarbamothioyl) furan-2-carboxamide, analyzed by experimental and theoretical methods | Journal of Molecular Structure | Saeed A., Ashraf S., Shabir G., Hokelek T., Florke U., Mukhtar A., Saeed M., | 2022 |
| Novel Carboxylic Acid-Capped Silver Nanoparticles as Antimicrobial and Colorimetric Sensing Agents | Molecules | Irfan M.I., Amjad F., Abbas A., Ur Rehman M.F., Kanwal F., Saeed M., Ullah S., Lu C., | 2022 |
| Effects of pH and Ionic Salts on the Emulsifying and Rheological Properties of Acorn Protein Isolate | Molecules | Khan N.M., Saeed M., Khan F.A., Ahmad S., Nawaz M.A., Khan Z.U., Shafique M., Almehmadi M., Abdulaziz O., Ullah A., | 2022 |
| Postharvest shelf life enhancement of peach fruit treated with glucose oxidase immobilized on ZnO nanoparticles | Food Chemistry | Batool R., Kazmi S.A.R., Khurshid S., Saeed M., Ali S., Adnan A., Altaf F., Hameed A., Batool F., Fatima N., | 2022 |
| Synthetic flavonoids as potential antiviral agents against SARS-CoV-2 main protease | Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics | Batool F., Mughal E.U., Zia K., Sadiq A., Naeem N., Javid A., Ul-Haq Z., Saeed M., | 2022 |
| Minocycline-derived silver nanoparticles for assessment of their antidiabetic potential against alloxan-induced diabetic mice | Pharmaceutics | Kazmi S.A.R., Qureshi M.Z., Sadia, Alhewairini S.S., Ali S., Khurshid S., Saeed M., Mumtaz S., Mughal T.A., | 2021 |
| Catalytic C???O bond cleavage in a ??-O-4 lignin model through intermolecular hydrogen transfer | Inorganica Chimica Acta | Ahsan Usman M., Naeem M., Saeed M., Zaheer M., | 2021 |
| Schiff-Based Metal Complexes of Lamotrigine: Design, Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Evaluation | ACS Omega | Najm S., Naureen H., Sultana K., Anwar F., Khan M.M., Nadeem H., Saeed M., | 2021 |
| Facile synthesis and in vitro activity of n-substituted 1,2-benzisothiazol-3(2H)-ones against dengue virus NS2BNS3 protease | Pathogens | Batool F., Saeed M., Saleem H.N., Kirschner L., Bodem J., | 2021 |
| Effect of Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha on Estrogen Metabolic Pathways in Breast Cancer Cells | Journal of Cancer | Kamel M., Shouman S., El-Merzebany M., Kilic G., Veenstra T., Saeed M., Wagih M., Diaz-Arrastia C., Patel D., Salama S., | 2012 |
| Mechanism of DNA depurination by carcinogens in relation to cancer initiation | IUBMB Life | Cavalieri E., Saeed M., Zahid M., Cassada D., Snow D., Miljkovic M., Rogan E., | 2012 |