Dr. Sanjeeda Jafar
Lecturer
Department of Biology
School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Morgan State University
1700 E. Coldspring Lane
Baltimore, Maryland 21251

Research Interest

I was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh the same year that the simian virus 40 (SV40) was discovered.  In college, I majored in Science and then attended medical school.  After graduating from the Dhaka Medical College and completing my internship, I worked at the International Center for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) as a physician.  While working there, I saw many cases of rotavirus diarrhea in the pediatric population.  That sparked my interest in Virology and I applied to Ph.D. programs in Virology in the U.S.  I pursued my doctoral studies at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and my dissertation was titled "Determination of the step of rotavirus SA11-4F replication blocked in HepG2 cells".  After getting my Ph.D., I did a post-doctoral research fellowship at Baylor and this time worked on SV40.  After a very fruitful two and a half years, which resulted in 5 publications and 1 child, I changed geography and career once again.  I came to Baltimore and became involved in teaching undergraduate students at Morgan State University.  This has been a very rewarding experience and I am also looking forward to getting involved in research again.

My interests include world history, English literature, the works of Kazi Nazrul Islam (a Bengali poet), politics, football, basketball and tennis.  I am a Houston Rockets' fan and have Hakeem Olajuwon's autograph.  My son has watched the Star Wars episodes so many times that I have them memorized, too.

Publications

1. "Detection of Authentic SV40 DNA sequences in Human Brain and Bone Tumors" J.S. Butel, Sanjeeda Jafar, A.R. Stewart and J.A. Lednicky.  In Simian Virus 40 (SV40): A Possible Human Polyomavirus.  DEVELOPMENTS IN BIOLOGICAL STANDARDIZATION.  F. Brown and A.M. Lewis (eds.), Basel, Karger, 1998, vol. 94, pp.23-32.
2. "Evidence of SV40 Infections in Hospitalized Children."  J.S. Butel, Sanjeeda Jafar, C. Wong, A.S. Arrington, A.R. Opekun, M. Finegold and E. Adam.  1999.  HUMAN PATHOLOGY 30(12):1496-1502.
3. "Serological Evidence of SV40 Infections in HIV-positive and HIV-negative Adults."  Sanjeeda Jafar, M. Rodriguez-Barradas, D.Y. Graham and J.S. Butel.  1998.  JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY  54:276-84.
4. "Natural Isolates of SV40 from Immunocompromised Monkeys Display Extensive Genetic Heterogeneity: New Implications for Polyomavirus Disease."  J.A. Lednicky, A.S. Arrington, A.R. Stewart, X.M. Dai, C. Wong, Sanjeeda Jafar, M. Murphy-Corb and J.S. Butel.  1998.  JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY 72:3980-90.
5. "High-Fidelity PCR Amplifications of Infectious Copies of the Complete Simian Virus 40 Genome from Plasmids and Virus-Infected Cell Lysates."  J.A. Lednicky, Sanjeeda Jafar, Connie Wong and J.S. Butel.  1997. GENE 184:189-95.
6. "Replication of Rotavirus SA11-4F is Inefficient Early, and Blocked Late, in Cultured Human Cells (HepG2)."  Sanjeeda Jafar and R.F. Ramig (manuscript in preparation).