Shaista Arif

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Research Assistant

School of Biological Sciences, University of the Punjab, Pakistan

Email: shaistaarif.sbs@pu.edu.pk

 

 

 

 

VALIDATE Role:

Network Associate

 

Research Keywords:

TB Diagnosis, Vaccine Research

 

Biography:

I hold a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, with a research focus on tuberculosis (TB) immunology, antigen discovery, and translational applications for diagnosis and vaccine development.

My academic journey and professional experiences have equipped me with a strong foundation in microbial immunology, protein biochemistry, recombinant antigen design, and immunoinformatics. Currently, I am focusing on designing next generation multi-epitope vaccines for TB using reverse vaccinology and immunoinformatics approaches along with translational research on TB.

 

Related Websites:

LinkedIn

 

Key Publications:

  • Arif Shaista, Aslam Farheen (2025). Immunoinformatics-driven Construction of a Next-Generation Epitope-Based Vaccine from Conserved Hypothetical Proteins of M. tuberculosis for Enhanced TB Control. Comput. Biol. Med. (under-review)
  • Arif Shaista, Farheen Aslam (2025). Assessment of the serological potential of M. tuberculosis fusion antigens through antibody reactivity analysis. Molecular biotechnology (Submitted).
  • Arif S, Akhter M, Anwar A, Javaid S, Ashi Z, Shad M, Rahman A, Abbas H, Ashraf F, Akhtar MW, Sajjad M (2025).“Immunological assessment of NSFu1: A novel fusion molecule constructed from structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 for improving COVID-19 antibody detection”. Arch Microbiol. 207(4):88. DOI: 10.1007/s00203-025-04286-3.
  • Arif, Shaista, Akhter, M., Khaliq, A., and Akhtar, M., W. (2022). “Fusion peptide constructs from antigens of M. tuberculosis producing high Th1-cell mediated immune response”. Plos One. 17(9): e0271126. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271126.
  • Arif, Shaista, Akhtar Mohsina, Shad Mohsin, and Akhtar MW (2022). "Recombinant production of Mtb antigens and their purification by affinity chromatography." Pakistan journal of biochemistry and molecular biology. 55(4): 226-231.
  • Arif, Shaista, Akhter Mohsina, Khaliq Aasia, Zaib un Nisa, H . Imran. Khan, and Akhtar MW (2021). "Serodiagnostic evaluation of fusion proteins from multiple antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for active TB." Tuberculosis. 127:102053.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tube.2021.102053.
  • Akhter, Mohsina, Arif, Shaista, Aasia Khaliq, Zaib un Nisa, Imran H. Khan, and Akhtar MW (2020). "Designing fusion molecules from antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for detection of multiple antibodies in plasma of TB patients." Tuberculosis. 124: 101981. DOI:10.1016/j.tube.2020.101981.