I am from Dhaka, Bangladesh and completed my undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering. After graduating, I worked as a quality executive under the Global Graduate program in British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB), where I oversaw quality control at each stage of production. I joined the Dordick group in January 2021 to pursue my interest in biological research. 

Research interests: 

My research involves producing SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses of different variants of concern (VOC), then testing entry-level inhibitory capacities of different compounds against them. I am currently working to optimize these pseudovirus neutralization assays on a high-throughput micropillar-microwell chip system, which would make these assays both cost and time efficient. Going forward, this platform could be used as a tool to monitor levels of vaccine-induced immunity by VOCs. My future aims include using pseudoviruses in conjunction with the high-throughput system to study how the degree and pattern of sulfation of heparan sulfates expressed on the surfaces of cells impact their role as co-receptors with the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor in SARS-CoV-2 infection. 

Awards and Honors:

1. Best paper award for Detection and Quantification of Heavy Metals in Personal Care Products, International Conference on Engineering Research, Innovation and Education (ICERIE), Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet, January 2019
2. 1st prize, 2nd National Chem-E-Car Poster Competition, Department of Chemical Engineering, BUET, 2016
3. Technical Scholarship for Engineering Education in Bangladesh, BUET, all academic years

Poster presentations and conference proceedings:

1. Feroz, Maisha M., Dima, Sadia S., and Islam, Nafisa, Detection and Quantification of Heavy Metals in Personal Care Products. International Conference on Engineering Research, Innovation and Education (ICERIE), SUST, Sylhet, January 2019. Awarded best paper.
2. International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICChE) 2017, Tahmid, Mohammed, Feroz, Maisha M., Mind over Mechanics: How Human Factors Influence Process Safety, BUET, Dhaka, December 2017 (Poster)
3. 2nd National Chem-E-Car Competition 2016, Feroz, Maisha M., Tithi, Adity D., Sushmit, Asif S., Mohiuddin, Mohammad, Aluminium powered cars: They really run on air!, BUET, Dhaka, November 2016 (Poster)