Kashif Ali

I was born and got my early education in Karachi. In the year 2000, I joined University of Karachi for my Bachelors degree (B.Sc.) in Physiology, with Biochemistry and Microbiology and finish my Masters (M.Sc.) in Biotechnology in 2005. During M.Sc., I worked on a project based on tissue culture and molecular studies on ornamental plants, involving micropropagation and PCR-based molecular techniques.In 2006, I started working as Junior Research Fellow at H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry where, apart from working on the in vitro propagation of different ornamental and fruit plants, I focused on the enhanced production of valuable plant secondary metabolites from the family Euphorbiaceae using cell suspension cultures in combination with chemical elicitors. During my tenure as a Junior Research Fellow, I published four research articles related to micropropagation protocol optimization of ornamental plants.In 2007, I got the Overseas Scholarship offered by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for the Ph.D. studies at the Natural Product Laboratory, Leiden University, The Netherlands. I joined the group of Prof. Robert Verpoorte, one of the pioneers in NMR-based metabolomics and started my Ph.D. research on a project named Genomic Research Assisted breeding for Sustainable Production of quality GRAPEs and WINE (GRASP, http://urgi.versailles.inra.fr/index.php/urgi/Projects/GRASP) involving NMR-based metabolomics of grapes and wine.In September 2011, I finished my PhD and went to Qiagen (Germany) on Marie Curie Secondment (FP7 program) for my first Postdoc. My work there was on metabolomics standardization and I studied the effects of different physical conditions on different primary metabolites, mainly amino acids, using human plasma as a test sample. Later I joined Leiden University for my second Postdoc where my work was on marine metabolomics, in collaboration with a South Korean group. Several marine sponges were tested for Adenosine-A1 receptor binding activity and the data were correlated with the corresponding metabolomics data using different multivariate data analysis algorithms. After that, I went to University of Florida as a Postdoctoral Associate to work on Vitamin B6 Metabolism in Maize. My work there was mainly on establishing a protocol for the HPLC-based analysis of these primary metabolites in different maize varieties.In 2013, I joined SZABIST-Karachi as an Assistant Professor at Biosciences Department. During my tenure here, I have worked as a Program Manager for BS Biosciences and Biotechnology, MS Biosciences and Biotechnology, Ph.D. Biosciences, and Master of Science in Public Health Programs. Since May 2020, I am working as a Professor and Dean Faculty of Life Sciences. I have played an integral part in updating and designing BS (Biosciences and Biotechnology), MS, Ph.D., and MSPH curriculums and got them approved and recognized by HEC, Pakistan. Apart from regular teaching assignments in BS and MS programs, I am also in-charge SZABIST?s Center for Biosciences Research (SCBR) where the faculty and students of Biosciences Department are involved in research related to enzymology, micropropagation, biotransformation, and biomarker identification and characterization. I am also working on projects related to metabolic profiling of the various ornamental, fruit, and medicinal plants using NMR and other analytical platforms. So far, I have published more than 20 research articles in ISI indexed journals and contributed three book chapters in books published by international publishers.