Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary-A lifetime career dedicated to remarkable services in “natural products sciences”

It is a great honor and a pleasure for us to serve as the Guest Editors for this especial issue of “Frontier in Pharmacology” dedicated to Prof. Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary on his pioneering contributions in the field of Bioorganic, Synthetic, and Natural Product Chemistry. This special collection, honoring Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary on his immense scientific contributions, and S and T (Science and Technology) capacity building services, represents an excellent opportunity to celebrate a remarkable chemist.

Prof. Choudhary has written or edited 94 books, including "Solving Problems with NMR Spectroscopy, Edition 2" (Academic Press (Elsevier), USA in the years 2006 and 2015) and "Bioassay Techniques for Drug Development" (Harwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam) (1999). Currently, he is the editor of many other prestigious international book series and several international science journals, including "Mini Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry", and "Current Bioactive Compounds" and the rest.

Honors and awards
Prof. Choudhary has been awarded several prestigious national and international awards, including the Friendship Award by the Chinese Government (

Key contributions Establishment of higher education institutions
Prof. Choudhary is currently leading two large institutions, the ICCBS (A UNESCO Cat. II center), and the COMSTECH. Under the dynamic leadership of Prof. Dr. Choudhary the ICCBS has emerged as one of the finest academic and research institutions in the developing world. He has led the major expansion of this premier research institution since 2002, both in terms of infrastructure and academic excellence. The institute received the prestigious IsDB (Islamic Development Bank) Prize twice (2004 and 2010) for the best science institution in the OIC region and selected as an UNESCO Category II Institution, and WHO Collaborating Center. As the Director of the ICCBS, Dr. Choudhary has opened the doors of state-of-the-art facilities for researchers, not only from Pakistan but also from other countries.
Prof. Choudhary has trained many young scientists from developing countries and helped them to initiate and continue their research despite the constrained environment in their countries. A large number of these young scholars have received their Ph. D. degrees based on their research work conducted under the supervision of Dr. Choudhary at the ICCBS. These scholars have developed into wellestablished scientists, serving their nations. Over 400 scientists (since 2004) from developing countries have been trained, which also resulted in hundreds of joint international publications. Dr. Choudhary facilitated the scientific visits of women scholars from developing countries to the ICCBS and other institutions, which have resulted in capacity building and continuity in their scientific career.

Key contributions in drug discovery
Prof. Choudhary has skillfully employed his deep knowledge of chemical principles along with biological functions in the discovery of a numerous intriguing compounds with significant therapeutic potentials (Siddiqui et al., 2020). Notably, Prof. Choudhary research group has discovered and established new clinically important enzyme inhibitors, which can be employed to stop the biological functions involved in enzyme-related disorders. His esteemed group have also discovered various new classes of lead compounds including numerous novel natural products and synthetic compounds, which possessed significant acetylcholinesterase, urease, α-glucosidase, and aromatase inhibitors. Some of these chemical entities are currently in different phases of human clinical and preclinical trials.
Dr. Choudhary and his research team have worked extensively on the plants used by the local population for the treatment of epilepsy and other neurodegenerative disorders (Shaheen et al., 2021). He along with his team has discovered isooxylitones A and B, the two most active antiepileptic secondary metabolites and patented in the United States. Interestingly these compounds were isolated from Delphinium denudatum and is currently in phase 2 clinical trials. These results have been published in many international journals and patented in the United States.
Moreover, he has developed an effective nutraceutical formulation for Parkinson's disease, which has been patented and is currently in phase-II human clinical trials. Discovery of anti-leishmanial compounds is another field of his interest Choudhary et al., 2005;Samdani et al., 2012). His team has successfully conducted multicenter clinical trials on the most potent compound and/or extracts from Allium sativum L., and Physalis minima L. Prof. Choudhary has identified drug candidates for the treatment of breast cancer which are several fold more active than existing clinical drugs (Choudhary et al., 2020). These drug candidates are currently in preclinical trials.
Interestingly, Prof. Choudhary has made pioneering contributions on the development of chemical entities which can reverse multidrug resistance (MDR) in Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Furthermore, Prof. Choudhary has discovered various enzyme inhibitors against various critical drug targets (enzymes involved in cancer, diabetes, peptic ulcer, and Alzheimer's disease) and antiglycating agents from natural sources, synthetic compounds, and bio-transformed metabolites.

FIGURE 1
Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary's academic family tree; only some of the Ph.D. students he has supervised and who eventually became university professors or researcher are included; all researchers including Ph.D. students) associated with him would exceed the limits of this compilation.

Global S and T (science and technology) capacity building
On the platform of COMSTECH (www.comstech.org), Prof. Choudhary is responsible for S&T cooperation and capacity building in member states in four continents. Since his appointment as the Coordinator General of COMSTECH, OIC-COMSTECH (Standing Committee of 57 Ministers of OIC member countries) has embarked on a journey of making international joint ventures, and fund raising for science and technology capacity building in largely LDCs (Least Developed Countries). This includes OIC's largest research mobility program, COMSTECH Consortium of Excellence (CCoE), COMSTECH-Africa Program in Health and STI in Niger, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Nigeria, and Chad, Emerging  Prof. Choudhary has helped in the establishment and strengthening of institutions, research centers, and laboratories in various countries of the developing world, including; • Turkey: "Natural Product and Pharmacognosy Laboratory", Gazi University, Ankara. • Saudi Arabia: "Laboratory for Bioorganic Chemistry", King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah.
Prof. Choudhary has always been a highly motivated, innovative, and hardworking researcher with gifted skills of a keen observer. As a mentor he has been a very encouraging and stimulating mentor to his students. He has this unique ability to teach students in such a way that they can visualize the concept in their mind easily, which reflects his command of the subject. He discusses science with reasoning and logic which has enabled him to supervise a large number of scholars and in this way creating a highly competitive, international and interdisciplinary working environment. Many of his former national and international students are now working in top institutions in Pakistan and the world as Professors and researchers ( Figure 1). Indeed, his passion for science, work, and fascinating scientific ideas has inspired entire generations of scientists around the globe, as showed by the contributions to this Special Collection.

Ethics statement
Written informed consent was obtained from the Prof. Muhammad Iqbal. Choudhary for the publication of any potentially identifiable image.

Author contributions
HH, HS, and IPG conceptulized the study and prepared the whole manuscript.