Principal investigator
Muhammad Tariq
LUMS
Principal investigator
Prof. Muhammad Tariq
Professor of Molecular Biology · Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering, LUMS
Professor Tariq joined LUMS in 2009 as Founding Chair of Biology. His lab studies epigenetic cell memory and the pathways that maintain cell fate using fruit flies, genetic screens and molecular approaches.
A lab built through its people
Our work is inseparable from the students who have shaped the research and carried its methods forward. In the early years, before our school had an MS or PhD program, undergraduate Zain Umer created the cell based reporter during her 2011 BS senior project. That reporter was later used in our reverse genetics screens. We owe our success to the BS, MS and PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who have built the Tariq Lab at LUMS.
The group today
Current members
RA and Senior Lab Instructor
Anam Nadeem
LUMS
Research Assistant
Misbah
LUMS
PhD
Menahil Mahmood
LUMS
PhD
Mahnoor Hussain Bakhtiari
LUMS
PhD
Abdul Khaliq
LUMS
PhD
Namrah Ishtiaq
LUMS
PhD
Zia Ullah
LUMS
MS
Muhammad Samrez
LUMS
MS
Jannat
LUMS
MS
Eeman
LUMS
MS
Kaneez Fizza
LUMS
MS
Aimen
LUMS
BS
Asna
LUMS
BS
Maaz
LUMS
Mentorship
Training across generations.
Since 2009, the lab has trained researchers at every level. Their contributions underpin the reporter systems, genetic screens and mechanistic studies featured here.
10PhD graduates
24MS theses
43BS theses
Mentorship totals provided by the lab, as of 2026.
The path to LUMS
2003 · Basel
PhD at the Friedrich Miescher Institute, studying gene silencing in Arabidopsis with Jerzy Paszkowski.
Heidelberg & ETH Zurich
EMBO fellow in Renato Paro’s group; investigated Hsp90 and trxG mediated epigenetic memory in fruit flies.
2009 · Lahore
Joined LUMS as Founding Chair of Biology and began building the lab and the Fly Room.
Today
Investigating how PcG and trxG regulation connects with signaling and the maintenance of cell fate.