Assistant Professor
Email: nilufarali@boisestate.edu
Lab: Science Building, Room 215
Year arrived at BSU: 2022-Present
Research Interests
Dr. Ali’s research focuses on aging-related conditions experienced in Parkinson’s disease (PD), spaceflight and breast cancer, with a central emphasis on mitochondrial dysfunction, proteostasis loss, and cellular stress responses. By integrating in vitro, in vivo, multi-omics approaches, her lab investigates how age-associated molecular changes contribute to disease progression and develop strategies to counteract these effects.
One key focus for Dr. Ali is understanding how spaceflight stressors—simulated microgravity and radiation—induce PD-like cellular and molecular changes in the brain. Dr. Ali and her lab are among the first to establish a link between spaceflight conditions and PD pathology, leveraging patient-derived datasets from the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative, astronaut and space-flown sample data from NASA OSDRs, and simulated microgravity experiments from her lab. These insights have driven efforts to develop targeted countermeasures for both space travelers and individuals at risk for age-related neurodegeneration as PD.
Another area of focus for Dr. Ali and her lab is investigating the role of novel Nullomer peptides, first developed by Dr. Ali’s mentor, Dr. Greg Hampikian, at BSU. Dr. Ali’s lab has expanded this research at BSU, investigating how these peptides induce cell death in cancer models by targeting bioenergetics, presenting a promising avenue for anti-cancer therapeutics.
Given that aging is the strongest risk factor for both Parkinson’s disease and cancer—and that similar cellular stressors are mimicked in spaceflight—Dr. Ali’s work aims to unravel the shared mechanisms driving these conditions and identify targeted interventions.
About
Dr. Ali teaches a variety of courses here at Boise State, including,
BIOL 466/566 – Advanced Topics in Biomedical, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology-Co-Taught Course Title: “Extracellular Vesicles and Extracellular DNA”
BIOL 466/566 – Advanced Topics in Biomedical, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology-Co-Taught Course Title: “Cell therapy and Immunotherapy”
BIOL 479 – Undergraduate Research Experience
Academic Career
BS, Zoology, University of Burdwan, India.
MS, Zoology (Major in Human Genetics), Banaras Hindu University, India.
PhD, Biochemistry (Neuroscience), CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, University of Calcutta, India.
Post-Doctorate, Boise State University, Idaho, USA