Dr. Muhammad Shoaib Akhtar is a Scientist at the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of California Davis. He completed his M.Phil in Molecular Pathology and Cytogenetics at the University of Health Sciences Lahore and his PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Tokyo. He was awarded the Best-of-the-Best Graduates Award at the University of Health Sciences Lahore for his M.Phil and a Prestigious Fellowship of the University of Tokyo for his PhD. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science in the United Kingdom and a member of the Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine in Ireland. He recently led an investigation to understand olfactory loss in COVID-19 disease. He has published a number of papers in various journals and serves as an Academic Editor at PLoS ONE. His research interests include chemosensory receptors, natural selection, olfactory dysfunction, and rare diseases.