Staff profile

Dr Yusra Siddiqui


Lecturer, BioMedical Sciences

Dr Yusra Siddiqui standing in a science lab

College

College of Science and Engineering

Research centre

Human Sciences Research Centre

ORCiD ID

0000-0001-7231-4736

Campus

Kedleston Road, Derby Campus

Email

y.siddiqui@derby.ac.uk

About

I am a Lecturer (Derby Scholar) in Biomedical Sciences, as part of the Research and Innovation Team at the School of Human Sciences. I mainly work as an Early Career Researcher and also contribute to the teaching in Biomedical and Forensic Sciences teams. I am a HE Lecturer with lots of international experience and an entrepreneurial background.

Teaching responsibilities

I lead a module called 'Principles of Cellular Biology' for the foundation level, and also actively contribute to various other modules across Levels 4 to 7 including Cell Signalling in Health & Disease, Oncology and Immunology, Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology, Diagnostic Molecular Biology, Science Communication, Special Topics in Medical & BioScience, and Clinical Genetics. 

I am also a Personal Academic Tutor for students across Foundation to Level 6. I also currently have a few undergraduate and Master's students working under my supervision.

I am also co-supervising an MPhil/PhD studentship project entitled: "Understanding the combined effects of carbon monoxide and PM2,5-like fine dust particles on the bioactivity and the invasive potentials and functional pathways of human early extra villous trophoblast derived cells in vitro."

Research interests

I am interested in understanding the molecular events underlying prostate cancer progression, and I am in the process of establishing my research profile here as an independent researcher.

My research interests in prostate cancer started during my PhD at the University of Bristol, whereby I investigated the role of a transcription factor called PRH (Proline-Rich Homeodomain protein) in prostate cell migration and proliferation. I worked with a range of in vitro prostate cell lines, that were normal immortalized to highly cancerous ones to understand prostate cancer development better. I also worked with 3D cultures of prostate cell lines, trying to recapitulate the in vivo environment in culture. My post-doctoral work was in melanoma progression, but it helped me develop an insight into using ex vivo angiogenesis assays and various cancer murine models. My work at IIMCB (Poland) equipped me with knowledge of analysing RNA-Seq data and familiarising myself with zebrafish as a model organism.

I am currently interested in understanding the link of prostate cancer progression to risk factors like sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a recent area to be explored. In this project, the link between Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the most common STI, is planned to be explored using human prostate cancer tissue sections from various clinical stages, both histologically and using bioinformatic approaches.

I am also recently interested in developing my pedagogical research entitled 'Inclusive Education in BioScience', and working on a collaborative project on 'Working towards a Culturally Sensitive Curriculum'.

Membership of professional bodies

Qualifications

Recent conferences

International experience

Additional interests and activities

I have active interests in pedagogical research, especially around 'digital practice in pedagogy' and  'innovative and creative learning, teaching and assessments'.

I also love to communicate science to the general public and am currently involved in raising awareness around gender-neutral vaccination, in line with my research.

Recent publications