Founder & Director-Research/Diagnostics
Dr. Rashid Saif is Founder & Director-Research/Diagnostics at “DECODE GENOMICS”, and Associate Professor-Biotechnology with teaching & research engagements at NUR International University, Kinnaird College for Women and NUCES-FAST, Lahore, Pakistan. He is Postdoc in molecular genetics & bioinformatics from University of Bern, Switzerland, where he worked on Pakistani goats to find large body-size associated genetic variants using pooled-seq NGS datasets. He earned his PhD in molecular biology & biotechnology from IBBt-UVAS, Lahore, Pakistan and conducted his doctoral research from University of Missouri-Columbia, USA on mutational & gene expression studies using RT-qPCR for diagnosing animal cancers, GWAS of progressive retinal atrophy was also investigated using 63K-SNP chip genotyping data using PLINK data analysis toolset. He is also trained from University of Washington-Seattle, USA & Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) in quantitative genetics, pathway/network analysis, integrative genomics & NGS multi-omics data analysis using Linux/R respectively. He has ~40 publications & 4 books/monographs in his credit. He has established foreign collaborations in different ongoing research projects with Washington State University & USDA, USA. Dr. Rashid is proficient in wide range of bioinformatics data analysis techniques specially for NGS multi-omics data using Linux & R bash scripting for developing & optimizing whole-genome variant calling, differential gene expression/RNA-seq, whole-exome analysis and genomic selection signature pipelines which are available on Udemy. As for as molecular diagnostic techniques are concerned, he is equally skillful in DNA/RNA extraction, Sanger sequence analysis, PCR nitty-gritties, recombinant DNA technology, phylogenetics, statistical genomics & biological modeling concepts to drive any sort of life sciences research project using wet and dry-lab approaches simultaneously. Furthermore, he has presented his research at different national and international platforms including Pakistan, Switzerland, Japan and USA.
Research Associates
Tania Mahmood is a Research Associate at “Decode Genomics” and BS graduate in Biotechnology from GCUF and is now pursuing her post-graduation from Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), Punjab University. She stepped in various projects supervised by Dr. Rashid Saif in the domain of molecular genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics and co-authored several national/international publications. She got expertise in DNA extraction, ARMS-PCR, gel electrophoresis and has also worked on Linux, Galaxy, Mathematica, and R software to analyze the NGS multi-omics datasets. She carried out her BS research on the effect of D543N (G>A) polymorphism in the SLC11A1 gene with pulmonary tuberculosis among the Pakistani population.
Aniqa Ejaz is a Research Associate at “Decode Genomics” and done with her graduation from GCUF in Biotechnology. She is now enrolled in MS Biology program from LUMS. She is skilled in production/product management, molecular biology, molecular genetics, PCR and NGS. She is experienced in Linux, Mathematica, Galaxy, R and MEGA software to do variant calling analysis, selection signature analysis, expression analysis along with the credit of being co-author of several national and international publications. She has accomplished her BS research in SNP Association analysis in TB.
Ali Iftikhar is a Research Associate at “Decode Genomics” and is currently enrolled in the MS Biology program in “Molecular and Cell Biology” stream at LUMS, Lahore, Pakistan. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology in 2021 from GCUF with his research work primarily focused on molecular biology and genetics. During his study period, he took on many research endeavors. His research/review articles are published in peer-reviewed journals with few projects in pipeline. His research interests involve molecular genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics.
Muhammad Hassan Raza is a Research Associate at “Decode Genomics” and received his bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from GCUF, Pakistan. His graduation research work was on “Cloning and expression of SARS-COV-2 receptor binding domain in prokaryotic expression system”. His area of interests includes recombinant DNA technology, expression studies, drug designing and protein structural analysis. He is proficient in both wet and dry labs. He got his skills in Real-time PCR, ARMS-PCR, RT-PCR, DNA/RNA extraction, affinity chromatography and ammonium sulphate protein purification. He has handful skills with different softwares e.g. MOE, NAMD, VMD, Modeller, Gromacs, MegaX, SPSS, PLINK, snapgene, to perform homology modelling, molecular docking/dynamic simulation. He had also worked as molecular biologist in COVID diagnostic lab. At present, he is working on different projects related to molecular genetics and bioinformatics.
Muhammad Osama Zafar is a Research Associate at “Decode Genomics” and undergraduate student/researcher in biotechnology. He has hands-on experience of basic molecular biology research techniques along with bioinformatics skills for analysis of different datasets. By looking at the DNA thread in Eppendorf is an achievement that we can imagine in the lab. Therefore, this fascination making me enthusiastic to set my career goal in biotechnology and bioinformatics to seek the unseen power of genetic material and coding sequences of life. For this purpose, I am availing opportunities at this center for making my paths clearer for higher studies/industrial research. Currently, I am pursuing my research on molecular docking/simulations for drug discovery and finding genetic variants associated with valued traits/diseases in humans, animals, and microbes.