Muhammad Zaka Asif, Ph.D.

Mentor: Randy Blakely, Ph.D.

Affiliation: Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine

Zaka is a postdocal fellow in the Blakely lab at the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute at the Jupiter campus. He is originally from Karachi, Pakistan. He earned his doctorate degree from the University of Georgia (UGA) in May 2023. While at UGA, he studied xenobiotic metabolism in C. elegans, mentoring of undergraduate researchers, and experiences of South Asian international students as they transition to doctoral programs in the United States. At Florida Atlantic, he is studying the SWIP-10 gene in C. elegans and how it regulates dopamine and its role in neurodegeneration in relation to environmental pressures. In Zaka's free time, he likes watching and playing sports (especially soccer and cricket) and spending time with family. He is an avid history buff with special interest in South Asian and Muslim history.