Rate My Professor Roshan Mascarenhas

Dr. Roshan Mascarenhas serves as Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed), where he has been since 2014. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA, conducting research at the Center for RNA Biology and the Center for Pharmacogenomics in the College of Medicine. His academic qualifications include a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Manipal University, Manipal, India; an MBA from Annamalai University (Distance Education), India; a Gold Medal for his Master's degree from Mangalore University in 2001; postdoctoral fellowships at Ohio State University; and a Certificate in Principles of Clinical Pharmacology from the National Institutes of Health, USA. Dr. Mascarenhas delivers lectures in Human Genetics, Cell and Molecular Biology, and Immunology to both Biomedical Sciences and MBBS students at NUMed.

Dr. Mascarenhas's research specializations include RNA biology, focusing on mRNA decay and the roles of coding and non-coding RNAs in translation; pharmacogenomics, particularly the impact of regulatory polymorphisms on drug metabolism; cancer and mitochondrial genetics, investigating mitochondrial DNA mutations and associated pathways in cervical cancer; and antimicrobial resistance within water and soil microbiomes. He has earned significant recognition for his contributions, including the 2023 Teaching Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching (Global category), the 2022 Staff Facilitator of the Year award, nominations for Teaching Excellence Awards in 2015 and 2016, the 2009 Young Scientist Award from the Indian Society of Human Genetics, and several best poster and presentation awards. Notable publications encompass "Circular RNAs in colorectal cancer: Emerging insights and future perspectives" (Biochemical Pharmacology, 2026), "The ester derivative Palmitoylcarnitine abrogates cervical cancer cell survival by enhancing lipotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction" (Cell Communication and Signaling, 2025), "Biological functions of extracellular vesicle double C2-like domain beta in cervical cancer" (Scientific Reports, 2025), "Characterization of microbiome diversity unveils substantial microbial variation in mangrove soil sediments from coastal regions of Malaysia" (Access Microbiology, 2025), "Allele-selective transcriptome recruitment to polysomes primed for translation: protein-coding and noncoding RNAs, and RNA isoforms" (PLoS One, 2015), and "Whole transcriptome RNA-Seq allelic expression in human brain" (BMC Genomics, 2013).