Muneeb Faiq

Muneeb Faiq (born: Srinagar - 1983) is a clinical researcher working on glaucoma (the second largest cause of blindness worldwide) and diabetes at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences. In 2014, Faiq and his research group propounded a radical hypothesis about glaucoma proposing it to be a brain specific form of diabetes. This hypothesis is likely to revolutionize the understanding of glaucoma and is thought to give birth to new areas in glaucoma research and treatment. Muneeb’s brain diabetes theory of glaucoma was reported by media all over the world. Muneeb has recently been awarded the "Best PhD Scholar Award" at All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He is the first Kashmiri to get this award. His research on glaucoma is widely acclaimed and considered to be extremely useful working guide for glaucoma specialists who treat children and their families with this blinding disorder. Faiq writes about molecular medicine, physics, philosophy and mathematics. In 2012, Muneeb propounded and put forth the "Encephalization Hypothesis of Diabetes" – a theory that explains the manifestation of diabetes primarily as a human disease. According to this hypothesis, diabetes is a peculiar and uniquely human disease with an evolutionary handcuff to increasing brain size in hominids. Muneeb and his co-workers proposed that due to certain unique aspects of human evolution, physiology, anthropology and anatomy, humans have a special predisposition for diabetes.