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Samia Hassan, M.Phil. Print bio

Samia Hassan, M.Phil.

Samia Hassan, M.Phil. is a Doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. She is the President of SESCOB, a Department of Biochemistry at the University of Agriculture. She is President of The Scientists forum since 2022 and is Senior Vice President of the UAF Student Council since 2022 as well.

SESCOB stands for Scientific, Educational, and Social Council of Biochemists, and she has been the President since February 2024. They organize both the Symposium on Nutritional Biochemistry and the International Symposium on Drug Discovery and Development.

Samia has been the Venue Staff Manager for the British Council Pakistan since 2024. They have been working in Pakistan since 1948 and every year they connect with thousands of students, educators, policymakers, academics, creatives, and entrepreneurs in Pakistan. The focus of their work is on providing opportunities for young people by supporting young people to achieve the education, qualifications, and skills needed to reach their potential in their future careers and creating and developing new networks and platforms to give young people a voice in society.

She was Senior Vice President of the Biochemical Society of the Department of Biochemistry, UAF.

At the University of Agriculture, Samia serves as President of The Scientist Society at the faculty level, as Senior Vice President of the Student Council, and as Senior Advisor of the Civil Service (CSS) Forum.

Previously, she served as the Peace Ambassador at the Edhi Foundation. She also earned the title of Best Mentor and Humanitarian of the Year for serving at The Citizen Foundation which mentors youth for a better career and well-being.

Samia was also the Publication Secretary of The Debating Club and is a member of the Peace Movement at the National Level and a Youth Representative at the National Level.

Samia earned her Master’s Degree of Philosophy in Biochemistry from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) in 2019. Her thesis work was on the over-expression of CRK1 in Arabidopsis to engineer salt and drought stress.

She earned her Master’s Degree of Science in Biochemistry in 2017 from the UAF. Her thesis research subject was on Nanotechnology in Medicine.

In 2016, Samia earned her Bachelor’s Degree of Education in Science Teacher Education and General Science Teacher Education from Allama Iqbal Open University. She taught several classes and did work as an examiner as well. She also earned her Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Botany, Zoology, and Chemistry in 2015 from the University of Punjab.

In 2020, Samia began her Doctoral Studies in Biochemistry. Her doctoral work is on CRISPR/Cas-mediated modification of phytic acid biosynthetic pathway to reduce phytic acid in maize. She has been working on the overexpression of CRK1 in Arabidopsis to engineer salt and drought stress and CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome editing for plant genetic improvement.

She has been using CRISPR/Cas9 in cotton to develop resistance against Cotton Leaf Curl Virus Disease (CLCuD). She has designed single and multiplex constructs and also established cotton transformation in collaboration with Professor Abhaya M Dandekar, University of California, Davis, USA.

Currently, she has been evaluating their constructs for resistance in N. benthamiana. This work is part of a research grant on “CRISPR/Cas9 based virus resistance in cotton” from USAID in collaboration with Professor Yinong Yang from Pennsylvania State University and Professor Abhaya M Dandekar, from UC Davis, California, USA.

She is now working on a maize project to reduce its phytic acid content for food security purposes in extreme climate changes. In addition, she has been using CRISPR/Cas for the genetic improvement of plants against salt stress using Arabidopsis as a model system.

Samia is committed to continuous learning and professional development. She actively seeks opportunities to expand her knowledge and enhance her skills. Alongside her academic studies, Samia regularly attends training courses and workshops related to her areas of interest. Notably, she has received advanced training in:

  • Fermentation Biotechnology
  • Gene Regulation and Expression
  • Proteomics and Protein Engineering
  • Design and Analysis of Experiments for Researchers
  • Viral Replication and Recombination
  • Biochemistry of Drugs and Their Resistance
  • Biochemistry of Control Systems
  • International workshop on “Applications of Computational Biology in Biotechnology”
  • 2nd National training course on “Integration of Modern Biotechnological Tools with Conventional System of Crop Improvement”
  • Modern Techniques in Analytical Chemistry
  • Enzyme Kinetics
  • Scientific writing and research planning
  • Pharmaceutical Chemistry
  • Biophysical Chemistry
  • Bioenergetics
  • Molecular Genetics

In addition to her professional pursuits, she is consistently committed to expanding her knowledge and understanding in her areas of interest. To achieve this, she actively participates in both national and international workshops and seminars. Some of the notable gatherings she has attended include:

  • International Conference on Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Biomaterials in 2018.
  • International Seminar and Workshop on CRISPR/Cas-based Genome Editing in 2022.
  • Applications of Nuclear Techniques for the Development of the Agriculture Sector in Pakistan in 2021.
  • International Conference of Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Biomaterials (ICBBB), 2016.
  • 1st National Workshop on CRISPR Applications in Biological Systems, 2023.
  • One-day National Hands-on Training Workshop on Basic Tools of Bioinformatics for Molecular Biology and Biomedical Research, 2023.
  • Two-day International symposium on medicinal plants and natural products (ISMPNP-2024).
  • International Symposium on Drug Discovery and Development.
  • Two-day hands-on training in molecular cloning and genome editing, 2024.
  • Bioinformatics training and transcriptomic training.
  • Modern trends in agriculture training.
  • International Conference on Emerging Technologies for Crop Improvement in Pakistan, 2024.
  • Study of Climate-resilient Crops.

Samia is a Gold Medalist in co-curricular activities and is a Silver Medalist as well. She won several awards for debates, best performer, best organizer, best mimic actress, best speaker, and many more.

Read Functional Characterization of CNGC19 and CNGC20 of Arabidopsis through CRISPR-Cas9, Synthesis and Characterization of Herbal Nano-suspensions and Evaluation of their In-vivo Antihypertensive Potential with Especial Focus on Piperine, Bacteria; We’re Good and Bad Enough For You, and Tracking Footprints of CRISPR-based Genome Editing.

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