Kashmiri Scientist Dr Aijaz Bhat wins 2025 ASBMR Young Investigator Award

June 18, 2025 by News Desk

Dr Aijaz Ahmad John Bhat has become the first Kashmiri to be awarded the Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Award by the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), one of the highest global honours for early-career scientists in skeletal biology. The award includes participation in the prestigious ORS International Musculoskeletal Biology Workshop to be held in Midway, Utah, from July 19–24, 2025.

Currently a Senior Postdoctoral Scientist at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Dr Bhat is recognised for his groundbreaking research on the role of microRNAs in skeletal development and bone diseases. His work focuses on how these molecules regulate mesenchymal stem cells, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts—key components in bone formation and resorption. His goal is to develop targeted gene therapies for conditions like osteoporosis, using bone-homing viral vectors.

Dr Bhat holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), India. He has qualified multiple national exams, including CSIR-NET (AIR 29), ICAR-NET, and GATE, and has published over 20 research papers in leading journals. His notable honours include the Horae Gene Therapy Post-Doctoral Scholarship and the New Investigator Award from the International Conference on Children’s Bone Health in association with the European Calcified Tissue Society in Germany.

As a molecular biologist with deep expertise in biotechnology, signal transduction, and skeletal biology, Dr Bhat’s work spans the identification of novel microRNA targets, understanding the dysregulation of bone-related signaling pathways in diseases like osteoporosis and inflammatory arthritis, and developing microRNA-based therapies using recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAV).

This year, Dr Bhat is among ten global recipients of the ASBMR award, alongside researchers from institutions such as Harvard, ETH Zurich, and the University of Michigan. His achievement has been widely celebrated in Kashmir, where it is seen as a milestone moment and an inspiration for young scientists across the region.

No Indian has received the Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) until now, making Dr Aijaz Ahmad John Bhat the first to be honoured with this prestigious recognition. While Indian researchers have been acknowledged in other ASBMR categories—such as Dr Priyanka Singh from PGIMER Chandigarh, who was awarded the “Emerging Country Young Investigator Award” in 2020—Dr Bhat’s selection marks a significant milestone, as the Frost Award is one of the highest international honours for early-career scientists in skeletal biology.