Dr. Karim received his Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnological Sciences awarded from Greenwich University London, 2011. He then worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Weill Cornell Medical College of Qatar. In 2013, he held the position of Research Assistant at the department of Molecular Genetics at the Shafallah Medical Genetics Center in Qatar, and in 2014 at the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute in Qatar Foundation. During his role as Research Assistant, his work primarily focused on consanguineous population screening using GWAS studies to identify and investigate the cosegregation of de novo mutations causing Autism and Intellectual Disability. In 2016, he pursued postgraduate studies, and proceeded to complete his Master’s degree in 2018, and his PhD in 2022, in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. During his postgraduate studies, his research involved the development of tissue-specific delivery vectors for the therapeutic delivery of CRISPR endonucleases into human cells in vitro and in vivo. The aim of his project was to develop a new strategy for gene therapy to correct disease-causing mutations for neurological disorders (such as A53T in SNCA in Parkinson’s disease).

 Dr. Karim joined Dr. Nasser Zawia's team at QBRI as a postdoctoral researcher in June 2022. His current research project involves tackling neurodegenerative diseases at the gene level using small molecules.