Early Yearsand Basic Education

Professor Mohammad Hassan Kariminejad was born in Sirjan city of Kerman in the south of Iran, the fourth child in the family.He is married and has three children. He received his MD in 1954 at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and after spending his 6 months’ residency in the Pediatric  Departmentof DrGharib Center, he completedtwo years of military service in his  native city,Sirjan, as a Pediatric Physician.

Postgraduate Education

In 1957, he trained in Pathology at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), where he was Chief Resident, and he earned his faculty position in 1971 at TUMS as full Professor. As Professor Kariminejad,he specialized in pediatricspathologyand, after completion of his residency pediatricPathology, he moved to Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, as a postdoctoral fellow after being awarded anNIB educational bursary from Sweden.

In 1965, he began his career at the Women's Hospital in Tehran, Iran. He was responsible for establishing the Pathology Department at the Women's Hospital, where he served as Physician-in-Chief. After his participation in 4^th training course in human genetics for medical school teachers 1968 and two researcher course in 1970-1972, he founded the Genetics Department and Cytogenetics Laboratory at the Women's Hospital (Jahanshah Saleh) in 1969, where he served as Director and made this center the leading or reference center for Medical Genetics in the country.

During his careerat the Genetics Department and Cytogenetics Laboratory as Physician-in-Chief, he was awarded a WHO fellowship and moved to the Pathology Department of Massachusetts General Hospital at Boston University, USA where he worked with Professor Robert Scully and received his second Postdoctoral degree in Women’s Pathology Department. After returning to Iran, he was appointed as the Head and Director of the Pathology and genetics women’s hospital Department of Iran's Razi Research Institute and a member of the editorial boards.

Upon his request,Professor Kariminejad retired in the spring of 1980, but he continued his diligent work in the scientific field. As he had no limitation in utilization of private resources, he developed his laboratory and established new cytogenetics methods such as strip assay, tissue culture, product of conception, amniotic fluid, chorionic villus samples, and prenatal diagnosis. Establishing prenatal diagnosis in Iran needed courage at the time because of increased legal restrictions on selective termination of an affected fetus. In addition, the cost would have not been covered by insurance.

Development

Professor Kariminejad believed that the best way to help and serve people is in developing educational resources and transferring knowledge and experience to them as well as training a successor; therefore, from the establishment of the Pathology and Genetics Center in 1980, he has open doors for all interested colleagues, students and scientists. The first step was training students studying Human Geneticsat Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences located in Khuzestan in the south of Iranwhere all of the professors in this branch of science had to leave their jobs because of the Iran-Iraq war, and these students were left without any teacher orpractical resources. Therefore, classes with six students were established for them in Tehran for 4 months duration. They were trained practically to prepare karyotypesand blood cultures, harvesting, and analyze the results.

According to his father’s advice, Professor Kariminejad believes that serving people as a medical scientist is a God given gift, which should not be wasted by material concerns and indigents deniedaccess to it because of their poverty.

Education

After the Iran-Iraq war when the universities began to reopen in Kerman, Professor Kariminejad noticed that Kerman Medical University had been badly affectedand lacked Professors in basic sciences. Therefore, Professor Kariminejad and Dr. AbdollahHabibi went to the region and, in addition to returning Dr. Hamid Tabrizchi, a Pathology specialist, to Kerman toteachembryology, histopathology, and pathology, he undertook educational courses in pathology and medical genetics at the university. He also promised to encourage other specialists toteachin this region.

After this mandate, he started to teach students at ShahidChamran University of Ahwaz, Zahedan University, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Yazd ShahidSadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, and the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences.

Professor Kariminejad plays an active role in many organizations.Since 1970, he has served as president and member of several scientific committees in Iran, in addition to his membership of European and American Pathology and Genetics Societies.Hehas been very active in teaching and research in recent years, having published several books including “Pathology of Male and Female Genitalia System” and “Basis of Human Genetics”. He was awarded the prize of “The Best Book of the Year 1991” for his third edition of the “Basis of Human Genetics and Hereditary Disorders”.He has published over 100 articles in internal scientific journals and more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in the top international general medical journals. He is widely traveled and, at least one or two times per year, attends international Pathology and Genetics congresses, and has been an invited speaker at a variety of internal congresses.

He has participated in several clinical trials and projects such as congenital blindness in Sirjan villages with Lour ethnic background and has identified several cases affected with Leber’s disease in this population in the south of Iran.He has published the causative novel mutations in international journals such as Human Mutation and Archives of Iranian Medicine (AIM).

Professor Kariminejad had made a great contribution to the development of medical services in the pathological and genetic fields by establishing the Kariminejad-Najmabadi Pathology &Genetics Center in the summer of 1979. In 1996, Dr. Hossein Najmabadi joined the center and set up the Molecular Genetics Division, which completed the diagnostic services of the Center.

To this end, he makes every attempt to stay current with all recent developments in his specialist fields and is proud to be able to say that access to all such services is available in the Center, or via collaboration and close scientific links with various prestigious scientists in referral centers all around the world.

Professor HooshangTayebi, a world-renowned pediatric radiologist who discovered several genetic syndromes, said about Professor Kariminejad:

“Dr. Mohammad Hassan Kariminejad is one of the most effective scientists in genetics in Iran. In addition to his professorship in pathology and genetics, he is the Chairman of Kariminejad Pathology and Genetics Center. His efforts in establishing and maintaining such a clinical and research center in this problematic situation are admirable.”