Dr. Azmat Ullah Khan

B.Sc. Hons. (UAF), M.Sc. Hons. (UAF), MS (The Netherlands), Ph.D. (The Netherlands)
Assistant Professor

Tel: 92-42-99211449-50/283  Mobile: 0345-7877348
Email: azmat.khan@uvas.edu.pk

Biography

Dr. Azmat Ullah Khan, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Faculty of Bio-Sciences, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore–Pakistan since October 30,  2014. He has completed his B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture, major subject as Food Technology in 2005 and M.Sc. (Hons.) Food Science and Technology in 2007 from National Institute of Food Science and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad–Pakistan. Dr. Azmat has received his PhD in Microbial Food Safety in 2012 from Molecular biology and Microbial Food Safety Lab, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

In his PhD reserch, he has studied intracellular pH (pHi) in yeasts. The main aim of  his research was to investigate the response of pHi to different environmental conditions, and its role in the adaptation to these changes. He focused on the conditions that are used in food industries to inhibit microbial growth such as weak acid preservatives and salts to increase the osmolarity. During the course of his PhD, he has published four articles and three publications are in preparation.

Areas of Interest:

Dr. Azmat is interested to understand the molecular stress physiology of pathogenic and spoilage microorganism. Stress response would be expected to affect the resistance and survival of pathogenic and spoilage microbes through the entire food production chain from farm to fork. There is a considerable potential risk of disease as a result of stress adaptation, particularly in food produced by minimal-processing or novel, alternative processing technologies.

  • Microbial food safety
  • Microbial stress physiology
  • Identifying the cellular mechanisms that enable the organism (pathogenic & spoilage) to adapt to or withstand environmental stresses/Preservative conditions.
  • Role of intracellular pH dynamics in different stress/growth conditions

Publications


  1. Ullah, A., et al., Quantitative analysis of the modes of growth inhibition by weak organic acids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Applied and environmental microbiology, 2012. 78(23): p. 8377-8387.
  2. Ullah, A., et al., Intracellular pH homeostasis in Candida glabrata in infection-associated conditions. Microbiology, 2013. 159(Pt 4): p. 803-813.
  3. Ullah, A., et al., Yeast adaptation to weak acids prevents futile energy expenditure. Frontiers in microbiology, 2013. 4.
  4. Thomas, W., et al., Metabolic phenotypes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants with altered trehalose 6-phosphate dynamics. Biochemical Journal, 2013. 454(2): p. 227-237.
  5. Saeed, F., et al., Effect of Arabinoxylan and Arabinogalactan on Textural Attributes of Bread. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, 2014.

In preparation

  1. Ullah, A., S. Brul, and G. J. Smits. 2012. Role of Hog1 pathway in regulation of intracellular pH in different stress conditions. Microbiology, (in preparation)
  2. Shin, J. J. H., A. Ullah, G. J. Smits, and C. J. R. Loewen. 2013. Phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate is a Golgi pH biosensor. (in preparation)
  3. Ullah, A., et al., Role of intracellular pH in different stress conditions. 2013. (in preparation)

Thesis

  • Ullah, A., The role of intracellular pH in environmental adaptation of yeasts. 2012.

 

  • Smits, G., A. Ullah, and S. Brul. Different roles for the Hog1 pathway in pH homeostasis upon osmotic and weak acid stress. in YEAST. 2013. WILEY-BLACKWELL 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA.
  • Smits, G., et al. The simplest signal: protons as second messengers controlling cell division rate and more. in YEAST. 2013. WILEY-BLACKWELL 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA

Research Projects:  

  • Intracellular pH dynamics of Zygosaccharomyces bailii in different preservative conditions and its implications to stress tolerance. Sumitted to International Foundation for Science, Sweden (as Principal Investigator, PI).
  • Microbiological quality and safety assessment of the milk supplied in the Lahore city. Submitted to HEC, Islamabad, Pakistan. (as Principal Investigator, PI).