Dr. Madiha Rasheed

About

Dr. Madiha Rasheed is an Assistant Professor and biomedical researcher in the Department of Biomedicine at the Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan. Her main areas of expertise include aerospace medicine research, space biomedicine, space biology, spaceflight neuroscience, molecular neuroscience, and biomarker research. Her work focuses on the neurological and molecular effects of simulated microgravity, radiation, and other spaceflight-related stressors, particularly in relation to mood disorders, neurodegeneration, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, epigenetic regulation, and microRNA-based biomarkers.

She has research experience using simulated microgravity and simulated complex space-environment models involving experimental animals and mammalian cell lines. These models have been used to investigate behavioural, neurological, cellular, and molecular responses associated with spaceflight-related conditions. Her experience includes experimental planning, operation of simulation models, sample collection, tissue and cellular analysis, molecular assays, protocol optimization, data analysis, and interpretation of behavioural and molecular findings.

Her laboratory expertise includes PCR and RT-PCR, RNA extraction and quantification, gel electrophoresis and documentation, mammalian cell culture, fluorescence-based cellular and molecular imaging, centrifugation, and routine biological sample processing. She also uses genomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics approaches for microRNA profiling, differential gene-expression analysis, pathway analysis, molecular-network interpretation, and biomarker identification.

As Principal Investigator, Dr. Rasheed has led a Beijing Natural Science Foundation project investigating the role of mitochondrial microRNAs in neurological changes associated with spaceflight conditions. She is also leading a SUPARCO-supported project on the real-time imaging of stress-activated neurons under microgravity conditions. Her work combines molecular laboratory methods, imaging technologies, animal and cellular models, and computational analysis to study biological responses to extreme environments.

She has also trained students and researchers in PCR and RT-PCR techniques, molecular biology procedures, experimental design, data analysis, and scientific interpretation. In addition, she has contributed to postgraduate teaching and course development in gene therapy, space physiology, neuroscience, and molecular biosciences.

Her research also has relevance to human health on Earth because several biological processes affected by spaceflight-related stress, including mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, psychological stress, brain aging, and neurodegenerative changes, are also involved in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Her work therefore contributes to a broader understanding of disease mechanisms and the identification of potential molecular biomarkers for both astronaut health and Earth-based biomedical research.

Areas of Expertise