Rahat Zaheer

Position: Senior Biologist

Institution: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre

Role with AMR - One Health Consortium: Co-Investigator

Dr. Rahat Zaheer is a molecular biologist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Dr. Zaheer obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology from the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, Pakistan. She completed her postdoc at McMaster University, Department of Biology, Hamilton, ON, where she studied bacterial functional genomics. Then, after several years of research and teaching at McMaster University, she joined AAFC in 2010, leading projects on veterinary/zoonotic pathogens and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as part of animal health and safety across One-Health continuum. Using microbial, molecular and genomics approaches, her research focuses on investigating AMR in zoonotic pathogens and livestock-associated bacteria posing a direct or indirect threat to human health, identifying bacterial vaccine candidates via reverse vaccinology approaches, examining the role of mobile genetic elements in the transmission of AMR, and understanding the ecological linkages between antimicrobial use and AMR in livestock production, environment and humans in One-Health scenario. Using metagenomics and metatranscriptomic, she is investigating the relationship between the impact of antimicrobial use on microbiota and resistome in beef cattle and within the environmental interface between animal production and the public. Her research work has been thoroughly published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Key Areas of Expertise: Antimicrobial Resistance, Beef Cattle, Agriculture, Molecular biology, Genomics