Fatiha Nassir, BS, MS, Ph.D, EASL, AAAS, ASSLD, AGA
Director Clinical Reasoning
Associate Professor
nassir@marshall.edu

Research Interest

Dr. Nassir is an Associate Professor at Marshall University School of Medicine, Department of Medical Education with a joint Appointment in Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Nassir has a passion for research, medical education, and mentoring. Her research focuses on lipid metabolism in the liver and the intestine, and how nutrients excess leads to metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). She is an expert in the different pathways involved in the development of metabolic diseases including fat absorption in the intestine, cellular fatty acid uptake, the oxidation of fat in the mitochondria, the assembly and secretion of lipoproteins in the blood, and the posttranslational modification of proteins in the regulation of metabolism.

Dr. Nassir’s research uses in vivo and in vitro studies using immortalized cell lines as well as primary isolated cells particularly hepatocytes, enterocytes, and liver slices. Her research findings have helped understand how excess nutrients and obesity causes cellular stress and metabolic diseases including NAFLD. She is also interested in the role of sirtuins, particularly SIRT3 as potential therapeutic targets for NAFLD. In addition, Dr. Nassir recently investigated the role of exercise in the improvement of fatty liver and fibrosis and showed a beneficial effect of exercise on liver health that is independent of weight loss. Dr. Nassir believes that an integrated understanding of these pathways will lead to the identification of novel therapeutic targets for metabolic diseases. She collaborated with well renowned Scientists and Clinician Scientists in the United States and abroad. Dr. Nassir presented her work in national and international venues, she authored more than fifty-one publications in well-respected scientific journals, and her publications gained more than 9,000 reads, about 4,200 citations. She also coauthored a book chapter and served as Guest-Editor for Biomolecules: Special Issue "Mechanisms of Nonalcoholic Liver Diseases."

Dr. Nassir is a native of Morocco, pursued her undergraduate and graduate education at the University Blaise Pascal, Clermont-FDA-France, and the French Research Institute on Human Nutrition-INRA-Their where she graduated with a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology/Medical sciences, with High Honors. She received the first price from the French Association for Nutrition (AFN) and an award from the French Association on Cholesterol and Atherosclerosis (ARCOL). She then completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago followed by faculty positions at Washington University and then at the University of Missouri Columbia where she has been actively involved both in research, medical students’ education, and research mentoring. Dr. Nassir is currently directing clinical reasoning in pre-clerkship curriculum at Marshall University.