About
Dr. Kif Liakath-Ali is a Lecturer in Advanced Cell Biology at the School of Biological Sciences. He is a principal investigator at the Splice Lab. His primary focus of research is to understand the biological role of RNA splicing and alternative splicing. This aim is achieved by using a combination of molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, microscopy, and computational tools. His lab is interested in basic molecular mechanisms that would inform therapeutic discovery for spliceopathies - group of diseases caused by splicing misregulation.
Kif was appointed in Southampton in May 2024. His lab is based in the Building 85 in Highfiled Campus. For more information about his research, visit www.splicelab.co.uk
Kif completed his PhD at University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Fiona Watt, where he conducted a first large-scale phenotype screen on mouse skin and identified several genes involved in skin structure and function. His work also led to a discovery of the importance of ribosome-rescue machinery in epidermal stem cell function. For his postodoctoral research, Kif moved to Stanford University in 2018 to work on molecular neuroscience under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate Professor Thomas Südhof. In Tom's lab he researched how alternative splicing of genes encoding key synaptic molecules is regulated.
Kif holds a teaching qualification through Stanford University Postdoctoral Teaching Certifcation. He also holds a qualification of Associateship of King's College London (AKC).
Kif is an advocate of research rigor and reproducibility, passion about mentoring and open science.