Arif Ashraf

Assistant Professor

Academic history

• Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada (2025~)
• Assistant Professor, Howard University, USA (2023-2024)
• Postdoc, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA (2019-2023)
• Visiting scholar, The University of Tokyo, Japan (2017-2019)
• Summer Intern, University of Saskatchewan, Canada (2016)
• Ph.D., Plant Biology, Iwate University, Japan (2019)

My links:

Website: https://www.ashraflab.com/
Publications: Google scholar, ResearchGate
Twitter/X: https://x.com/aribidopsis


Research interests

We study cell division to understand plant development, environmental response, and drug discovery.

Selected publications:

  1. Olivia Hazelwood, M Arif Ashraf*. (2024) Opposing polarity domains provide direction and play a role in cell division in plant growth. Developmental Cell. 59 (9): 1091-1093.
  2. Le Liu, M Arif Ashraf, Taylor Morrow, Michelle Facette. (2024) Stomatal closure in maize is mediated by subsidiary cells and the PAN2 receptor.  New Phytologist. 241 (3): 1130-1143.
  3. M. Arif Ashraf*, Le Liu, Michelle Facette. (2023) A polarized nuclear position specifies the correct division plane during maize stomatal development. Plant Physiology. 193 (1): 125-139.  
  4. M. Arif Ashraf*. (2023) A nuclear Pandora’s box: Functions of nuclear envelope proteins in cell division. AoB Plants. 15 (2): pla065.
  5. M. Arif Ashraf, Michelle Facette. (2020) BASL gives the plant nucleus a sense of direction. Current Biology. 30 (22): R1375-R1377.
  6. M. Arif Ashraf, Takashi Akihiro, Keita Ito, Sayaka Kumagai, Ryohei Sugita, Keitaro Tanoi, and Abidur Rahman. (2021) ATP binding cassette proteins ABCG37 and ABCG33 function as potassium-independent cesium uptake carriers in Arabidopsis roots. Molecular Plant. 14 (4): 664–678.
  7. M. Arif Ashraf, Kana Umetsu, Olena Ponomarenko, Michiko Saito, Mohammad Aslam, Olga Antipova, Natalia Dolgova, Cheyenne D. Kiani, Susan Nezhati, Keitaro Tanoi, Katsuyuki Minegishi, Kotaro Nagatsu, Takehiro Kamiya, Toru Fujiwara, Christian Luschnig, Karen Tanino, Ingrid Pickering, George Graham, and Abidur Rahman. (2020) PIN FORMED 2 modulates the transport of Arsenite in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Communications. 1(3): 100009.
  8. M. Arif Ashraf, Abidur Rahman. (2019) Cold stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana is mediated by GNOM ARF-GEF. The Plant Journal. 97 (3): 500–516.