Dr. Habib; famed for her scientific acumen, determination and administrative skills serves as a principal scientist and ‘scientist-in-charge of Molecular & structural Biology Division’ in CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow.  Her area of interest is malaria research that she deals with multiple approaches including molecular & cell biological investigations of states of Plasmodium’s infective life cycles and explorations of role of human genetic variations in regulating susceptibility to severe P. falciparum.  Majorly, she has contributed to the field by unraveling the mechanism of DNA replication, organization of the Plasmodium falciparum apicoplast, investigating apicoplast ORFs and translation process in Plasmodium apicoplast.  On the other side her additions to the literature of human genetic polymorphisms and their relevance in determination of susceptibility towards malaria parasites can never be underestimated (for details refer her earlier interview with The Telegraph- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111219/jsp/knowhow/story_14899273.jsp).  As a scientist, she has supervised many a PhD students those are working as independent researchers and scientists in India and abroad.  Assuming her potential to inspire research aspirants and scientists in their early careers, Thesciencecolumnist.com requested her to share her views on various aspects of her life, both personal and professional, and we are grateful to Dr. Habib that she shown faith in our initiatives.  We believe that this conversation will help research aspirants to know more about the academic life of Dr. Saman Habib, and Thesciencecolumnist.com expresses its gratitude to Dr.Habib, and wishes for the best of health, prosperity and success to her life.

Malaria parasite is driven by the desire to understand (a) the molecular workings and functions of the relict plastid (apicoplast) of Plasmodium, (b) mechanisms of protein translation employed by Plasmodium organelles and (c) human genetic factors and susceptibility to severe P. falciparum malaria in endemic and non-endemic regions of India.