[1] He was formerly head of the scientific advisory group to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortia (INSACOG) established in December 2020,[2][3] and the chief executive officer of Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance.

[4][note 1] Shahid Jameel was born on 8 August 1957 in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to Abdul Majid Siddiqui, a medical academic, and his wife Jameela Aleem.

Jameel performed his postdoctoral work on molecular virology at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

His stay there lasted a year and on his return to India in 1988, he joined International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) where he established the Virology Research Group.

[13] He has delivered keynote addresses or invited speeches which included the Sir Syed Day Celebration 2016 in Chicago[25] and is a designated speaker at the National Conference on Biotechnology and Environment (NCOBE-2017) to be held at Jamia Millia Islamia in August 2017.

[31] He is a member of Guha Research Conference as well as the American Society for Microbiology[32] and the award orations delivered by him include the Dr. M. R. Das Memorial Lecture of the Indian National Science Academy.