He obtained a PhD from the Hamburg University of Technology in Germany. He was manager of the Environmental Biotechnology Co-operative Research Centre at MQ and later was the recipient of the prestigious Vice-Chancellor's Innovation Fellowship. His recent research has been on the interaction between biomolecules and inorganic compounds including new synthetic peptide linkers with applications in the functionalisation of nanoparticles, bioimaging and cancer therapy. Anwar is a member of the MQ Biomolecular Discovery and Design Research Centre, MQ Biosecurity Futures Research Centre, Australian Research Council (ARC) Training Centre for Molecular Technology in the Food Industry and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics. He is also one of the directors of Synthetic Biology Australasia.