Ahmed is a cancer biologist in the Departments of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He pursued his doctoral studies in Cancer Biology at Purdue University, where he received a Chateaubriand Fellowship from the French Government allowing him to spend a year at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research of Lyon, France. His PhD research focused on studying how hepatitis B virus highjacks cell cycle machinery to promote viral replication and carcinogenesis, and provided insights on how cell cycle deregulation can be targeted therapeutically to prevent viral replication and cancer progression.
Ahmed subsequently completed his postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle before moving to Penn in 2023. It is in Seattle that Ahmed dedicated his research to human papilloma viruses and how they disrupt cell cycle checkpoints during cancer development. His research is supported by a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
Ahmed is dedicated to build a diverse, interdisciplinary research team dedicated to the study of HPV, cell cycle biology and tumor virology. He is also committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists and to support their scientific and career development goals.