Zainab Afzal

Zainab Afzal is originally from Lahore, Pakistan. She got her associate's degree in nursing and her bachelor's in biology from the University of the District of Columbia. Through summer internships at the Center for Prostate Disease Research and cancer biology work in Dr. Kumar's lab, she was exposed to fundamental biology. These amazing research experiences inspired her to pursue her Ph.D.

Dr. Afzal is a developmental biologist by training, having joined the lab of Robb Krumlauf at Stowers Institute for Medical Research after being accepted to the Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Program at Kansas University Medical Center. Her dissertation was focused on understanding how switches in the DNA, called enhancers, regulate the transcriptional activity of Hox genes — a family of transcription factors important for defining the anterior-posterior body axis during development. Her expertise spans working with mouse and zebrafish embryos and embryonic and hematopoietic stem cells, as well as employing techniques such as CRISPR, confocal microscopy, and the analysis of large imaging datasets.

Following her Ph.D., Dr. Afzal conducted an exploratory project at the Marine Biological Laboratory, where she gained expertise in advanced microscopy and culturing techniques for embryos of the marine invertebrate, Parhyale hawaiensis. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Kumar's lab at North Carolina Central University, where she is investigating the impact of environmental toxins, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and cyanotoxins, on early developmental processes using zebrafish as a model. Leveraging her extensive research background, she aims to apply various treatment conditions, genetic manipulations, single-cell sequencing and imaging techniques to explore early developmental impacts of environmental toxins.