Bagasra was born on the border of Pakistan and India in the royal state of Junagadh in 1948 at the eve of Indo-Pak partition and Pakistani independence, while his family immigrated to their new homeland, Pakistan.[1] He came from a Memon businessmen family, born in the household of Mr. Habib Ahmed Bagasra and Mrs Amina Habib. The family settled in Karachi after their arrival in Pakistan, where he had his early and higher secondary schooling from Karachi. He completed his bachelor's in microbiology and master's in biochemistry, both from the University of Karachi, in 1968 and 1970, respectively. He proceeded to United States to do his doctorate in the early 1970s, completing his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, from the University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky in 1979. Finally, his long-standing interest in medicine motivated him to pursue a career in medicine by enrolling and completing his Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez in 1985. He completed his residency in pathology from the Temple University School of Medicine in 1993 and a string of fellowships in clinical laboratory immunology and infectious disease from Temple University, Philadelphia and the Albany Medical College, New York, respectively.
His graduate advisors included John H. Wallace (University of Louisville, KY), John M Mansfield (University of Louisville, KY), and Harold W. Lischner (Temple University, PA).
He is currently a tenured professor of biology (and the director) at the South Carolina Center for Biotechnology, Claflin University, as well as a clinical professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology, with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. He is also an adjunct professor with a number of reputed medical schools, most notably the department of epidemiology and biostatistics, Univ. of South Carolina. He is also a reviewer with one of the most reputed journals of science, Science.[2]
He is author of two books in biotechnology, HIV and Molecular Immunity and In-situ PCR Technique, latter with his co-author John Hansen.[3]
Other than his services to medicine and his innovative techniques in biotechnology, he is known for his role as a reviewer and investigator of the notorious HIV trial in Libya, where, allegedly, some children were injected with the virus for AIDS, the HIV, by some local and expatriate medical staff working then in Libya. He published opinion pieces (in the "Libyan Journal of Medicine") disputing the findings of large studies published in the leading journals Nature and The New England Journal of Medicine.[4][5]
His most notable student so far is Mazhar Kanak, MD, PhD,[6] who is an assistant professor, VCU School of Medicine Department of Surgery (in the Division of Transplant Surgery), as well as the assistant director of the Islet Cell Transplant Lab, an important pioneering lab in the area of Islet cells, both at the Virginia Commonwealth University.
He has one son, an infectious diseases specialist, and a daughter who is a psychology professor.
He is currently involved with the development and critique of various bona fide endeavors in finding a viable vaccine for the Zika virus,[7] in addition to working on a new experimental diagnostic kit which, he claims, will replace field diagnostic kits.[8]
