Rafat Siddiqui
Associate Professor
Virginia State University
USA
Biography
Dr. Siddiqui earned his BSc and MSc degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Karachi, in Karachi, Pakistan. He was accepted as a candidate for PhD studies by the University of Oxford (UK), the University of Calgary (Canada), and the University of North Carolina (USA) but decided to accept a prestigious scholarship from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. While obtaining his PhD in Australia, he investigated the metabolic basis of cancer cachexia under the supervision of Professor John F. Williams, who is famous for his research on the pentose phosphate pathway. Dr. Siddiqui served as a postdoctoral fellow at Massey University in Palmerton North, New Zealand in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart McCutcheon (currently Vice Chancellor of Auckland University in New Zealand). Dr. Siddiqui immigrated to America in 1989 at the invitation of Dr. John Exton and a Howard Hughes fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Dr. Siddiqui began his work as a researcher at Methodist Hospital in 1993 in the Bone Marrow Transplant Research Laboratory. He established his independent research laboratory in 1999 and was the Senior Investigator and Director of the Cellular Biochemistry Research Laboratory at the Methodist Research Institute. Dr. Siddiqui also held adjunct appointments in the Department of Biology, Indiana University-Purdue University and the Department of Medicine, Indiana University Medical School, Indianapolis.
Research Interest
Dr. Siddiqui's research interests are in the area of cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular diseases. His research emphasis is on modulation of diseases by dietary fatty acids such as omega-3, omega-6, omega-9, and trans fatty acids. Dr. Siddiqui has received funding from the National Cancer Center (NIH), American Heart Association, Showalter Foundation, Abbott Pharmaceuticals, and Baxter Nutrition.