Faculty of Molecular Medicine

Prof. Dr. Talat Mirza

MBBS, M.Phil., PhD
Executive Director Research & Meritorious Professor

Prof. Dr. Talat Mirza is a leading Scientist and Histopathologist in Pakistan with extensive research experience along with teaching and training of postgraduate medical students leading to Masters and PhD in Pathology and in varied subject areas like Anatomy, Radiology, ENT Surgery, Oral Medicine and Pathology etc. She has more than 12 Masters and 6 PhDs at her credit with more registered presently for the same. She is a Dow University graduate and retired from there as a Meritorious Professor of Pathology after serving in several commanding positions of Dean Basic Sciences, Director Institute of Postgraduates studies, and Director Dow College of Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences. After retirement from Govt. job in the highest-grade BPS-22, she joined as the Dean of Research at Ziauddin University where she is extensively involved in the research activities of faculty and postgraduate students at large. Presently she is working as Executive Director Research at Ziauddin University.

Her major areas of research interest have remained molecular oncogenetic mechanisms in different tumors with extended interest in Cancer Registration System. Tumor Pathology with a specific probe through advanced molecular genetic techniques has been explored so far with curative prognostic and rehabilitation perspectives. She has more than 90 National and International Publications to her credit and attendance as well as a speaker/organizer of more than 135 workshops, seminars, conferences etc.

Dr. Rehan Ahmed 

BS.MT, PhD
Assistant Professor & Incharge MDRL-2 

Dr. Rehan’s current research projects involve discovering novel natural and synthetic compounds in in vivo models of rhabdomyolysis-induced acute kidney injury, cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury and CCl4-induced hepatic damage. A variety of in vivo assays are employed to elucidate the mechanism(s) of action of the compounds. The study deals with the histological and molecular change(s) of the liver and kidneys that occur in diseased mice and whether these changes can be prevented by different natural products. He is also working on histomorphometry of human placenta and umbilical arteries and morphological changes in benign and malignant breast tissue using high resolution eosin fluorescence and immuno-histochemical techniques.

Dr. Shumaila Usman

BS., PhD
Assistant Professor
Incharge Cell Culture Facility

Dr. Shumaila Usman is a Biochemistry graduate from the Department of Biochemistry, University of Karachi. She completed her PhD in Molecular Medicine from Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine & Drug Research in 2017. Her research interests involve molecular mechanisms that are involved in the differentiation induction of stem cells and mature cell types. She is particularly interested in the analysis of the differentiation potential of the umbilical cord and amniotic epithelial stem cells into hepatocytes for the treatment of hepatic disorders. In addition, she also uses preconditioning strategies by chemical and genetic modifications including hypoxia and reoxygenation, over-expression of transcription factors in stem cells to enhance their regeneration potential into various cell types.

Dr. Ambrina Khatoon

B.Sc. (Hons.) M.Sc., PhD
Assistant Professor
PhD Coordinator

Dr. Ambrina Khatoon graduated from the Department of Biotechnology, University of Karachi in 2007 and completed her PhD in Biotechnology from The Karachi Institute of Biotechnology; Genetic Engineering (KIBGE), University of Karachi in 2013. She held postdoctoral research and teaching experience at SIUT, NEDUET, DIHE and ICCBS. She has worked at Jamil-ur-Rahman Center for Genome Research (JRCGR), PCMD, ICCBS, where she established a microbial genomics lab. Dr. Khatoon is best known for bacterial pathogenesis and resistance. Using Sanger’s sequencing and Whole Genome Sequencing her group has identified numerous genes of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enterica that are required for virulence. Her research group is currently working on drug target identification and reverse vaccinology approach.

Dr. Rehan Imad

BS.MT, PhD
Assistant Professor &
In charge MDRL-1

Dr. Rehan Imad has completed his BS in Clinical Laboratory Sciences from SIUT, and PhD in Molecular Medicine from Dr. Panwjani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, University of Karachi in 2019. His research interests include the elucidation of the molecular mechanism of diseases by employing various molecular techniques. In addition, he is also interested in studying the molecular mechanism of cell death induced by anti-cancerous compounds in various cancer cell lines. Currently, he is working on the anti-inflammatory effects of synthetic compounds in a primary neuronal culture of rats. Furthermore, he is also working on gene and protein expression of potent disease biomarkers in oral submucous fibrosis and periodontitis.

Dr. Abdul Hameed

BS., PhD.,
POST-DOC (JAPAN)

Dr. Abdul Hameed did PhD in Molecular Medicine from Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD). He did Post-doctorate from the Department of Molecular Medicine, IMCR, Gunma University, Japan. Currently, he is working on the Pathophysiology of diabetes by exploring the mechanism(s) of new anti-diabetic drug candidates on the key players of important signaling cascades e.g., cAMP/PKA, PLC/PKC MEK/ ERK½, AKAPs, and NTPDase3, for the hormonal regulation using cellular, molecular, and genetic approaches. He has pioneering contribution in establishing islets of Langerhans isolation and β-cell biological setup at PCMD, ICCBS. He has 23 research publications in international well-reputed journals with an Impact Factor of 87.76. In recognition of his scientific contributions, he has been honored with the AASD Investigator Award for 2019 by AASD/JDS in Japan. He has also been honored with the Excellent Award for his outstanding scientific work by Japan Endocrine Society in Japan.

Dr. Yamna Khurshid

B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc., PhD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Yamna Khurshid earned her PhD degree in Molecular Medicine from the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) at the University of Karachi in 2020. She joined Chapman University School of Pharmacy California, USA in 2017 as a Predoctoral Fellow, where she worked on molecular characterization and anticancer activity of novel peptides/proteins from medicinal plants. Her research interests include peptides/proteins-based drug discovery, elucidation of their molecular mechanism, and applying mass spectrometry-based shotgun proteomics to get deep insight into the diseases. She has received numerous awards and honors such as outstanding research poster awards at the ABRF Annual Meeting (USA, 2020), Rinker Health and Science Research Conference (USA, 2018), and Chapman University School of Pharmacy Research Day (USA, 2018). In 2019 Dr. Khurshid was awarded a highly competitive and prestigious Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds travel award to attend a flow cytometry course at EMBL, Heidelberg. Recently she received Giersch Conference Summer School Fellowship (Germany, 2021).