Zahid belongs to a piece of land that is known for its scenic splendour, snow-capped mountains, gushing waters and hospitable folks, the Kashmir valley. He accomplished his primary education from his homeland, later he qualified the combined entrance examination for biotechnology (CEEB), organized by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi to pursue his Masters in Biotechnology. After finishing his masters degree, he went on to pursue his Ph.D at the Department of Microbiology and Cell biology at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, one of the most prestigious research institutes of India. In his Ph.D he has published multiple research articles in peer-reviewed journals and his work encompassed the understanding of various epigenetic phenomena that are haywired in glioblastoma - a type of Grade-IV brain cancer. He has qualified various national level scholarship exams including GATE, DBT-JRF and CSIR-JRF that supported his Ph.D.

“Chasing my aims to understand tumor biology, I joined Genome Institute of Singapore, as a Post-doctoral fellow where I evaluated tumour heterogeneity and its implications in disease response and prognosis by employing different flavors of single cell biology, like single cell (sc) transcriptomics and sc-ATAC-seq. In CBC lab at KAUST, I would be furthering my capabilities in single cell biology to understand chromatin and its modulations post metabolic perturbations in the nuclear environment. The group lead by Prof. Wolfgang is diverse both in their cultures and their respective scientific model systems they harness, which paves way for limitless learning.”