Ali Imran
Education
- Ph.D. in Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (May 2022) — biophysical research quantifying protein-protein interactions; Research Excellence Doctoral Fellowship, 2021
- M.S. in Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (2018)
- B.S. in Physics (Minor: Computer Science), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan (2016) — Dean’s Honor List, 2013–2016
Research Interests
- Biophysics of protein-protein interactions; oncogenic mutation characterization; nanopore sensor design; computational modeling of biomolecular recognition.
Biography
Dr. Ali Imran joined Habib University as Assistant Professor in the Integrated Sciences and Mathematics program in August 2025, teaching Bioinformatics and the Core Scientific Methods course and serving on the Physics Minor Review and Natural Science Elective Development committees.
Immediately prior to Habib, Dr. Imran was a Senior Scientist at Pfizer, Boston (2022–2024), where he characterized and evaluated over 1,000 biomolecules across 11 biomedicine discovery campaigns and helped implement automation features that improved the scale and accuracy of drug-discovery pipelines. He completed his Ph.D. in Physics at Syracuse University (2016–2022), conducting biophysical research on the oncogenic potential of WDR5 protein-protein interactions using Biolayer Interferometry, Surface Plasmon Resonance, and Fluorescence Polarization, and served as a Graduate Research Fellow at Ichor Therapeutics (2021). Earlier, as an undergraduate at LUMS, he conducted detector-testing research at CERN (2015).
Dr. Imran has published eight peer-reviewed papers in journals including ACS Nano, Nature Communications, and ACS Chemical Biology, bridging biophysics and cancer research through both experimental and computational approaches.
Selected Publications
- Ahmad, M., et al., Imran, A. “A Site-Specific Self-Association of a Protein Hub Drives Its Phase Separation.” ACS Chemical Biology, 21, 2026.
- Ahmad, M., Imran, A., and Movileanu, L. “Overlapping Characteristics of Weak Interactions of Two Transcriptional Regulators with WDR5.” International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2024.
- Mayse, L. A., Imran, A., et al., Movileanu, L. “Evaluation of Nanopore Sensor Design Using Electrical and Optical Analyses.” ACS Nano, 17(11), 2023.
- Mayse, L. A., Imran, A., et al., Movileanu, L. “Disentangling the Recognition Complexity of a Protein Hub Using a Nanopore.” Nature Communications, 13, 2022.
- Imran, A., et al., Movileanu, L. “Convergent Oncogenic Alterations of a Protein Hub Produce Divergent Effects Within a Binding Site.” ACS Chemical Biology, 17(6), 2022.
Workshops & Conferences
- PepTalk – The Protein Science and Production Week, San Diego, 2025
- Biophysical Society Meeting, San Francisco, 2022
- Graduate Teaching Workshop, Syracuse University, 2022
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