Immunology Researcher Riyasat Ali Joins College's Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty
The University of Houston College of Pharmacy (UHCOP) recently welcomed immunology researcher Riyasat Ali, Ph.D., into the Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences as a research assistant professor.
Ali joined UHCOP in 2018 as a research associate under Tahir Hussain, Ph.D., FAHA, Joseph P. and Shirley Shipman Buckley Endowed Professor and associate dean for Research and Graduate Programs. As a member of Hussain's lab, Ali has been investigating the renoprotective roles of the AT2 receptor and its correlation with immune cell infiltration in chronic and acute kidney diseases.
Prior to joining UHCOP, Ali served as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where his research focused on Type 1 diabetes and HIV immunology.
In his latest research work, Ali has shown that AT2R activation – by C21, a synthetic AT2R agonist – reduces the kidney infiltrating immune cells, thereby limiting post-IR kidney injury, and enhancing the tissue repair. He also has identified a potential role of T regulatory cells (Tregs) and AT2R-mediated Treg modulation in mitigating post-ischemia renal injury and accelerating repair.
Ali has authored or coauthored papers in such publications as American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, Clinical and Experimental Immunology, the European Journal of Immunology, Immunology, Journal of Diabetes Research, and The Journal of Immunology.
Ali earned his B.Sc. degree in zoology, botany and chemistry from S.D. College Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, India, and his M.Sc. degree in biotechnology – as well as a postgraduate diploma in bioinformatics – from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Dehli, India. Ali completed his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry/immunology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
He holds editorial board appointments on the Research on Chronic Diseases and Diabetes and Clinical Research, and serves as an international editor for the Journal of Nobel Medical College.