Influential Woman · University of Virginia
Farha Naz
PhD
Research Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, VA 22908
Her Story
About Farha
Farha Naz serves as Research Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. She earned her undergraduate degree from Allahabad University in India and her master's degree from Jamia Hamdard in Delhi, India. During her master's studies, she qualified for the CSIR fellowship and completed her PhD in 2016 after starting in 2011. Naz has held prior roles including guest faculty at Allahabad University, assistant professor in the molecular and cellular engineering department at Shuats Allahabad, research scientist at NIOP safdarjung Hospital, and research associate at the University of Virginia starting in 2022, with promotions to research scientist in 2025 and her current position. Her research centers on the host immune response to C. diff immune responses, vaccine development, fecal microbiota transplants, type 2 immune response including eosinophils biology. She is a member of the International Society for Mucosal Immunology (SMI), the Eosinophil Society (IES), and the American Association of Immunologists. Naz attributes her success to hard work, persistence, and solving complex problems, such as mastering single-cell RNA sequencing. She maintains a personal blog at woekshaks.blogspot.com
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Farha
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to hard work and persistence. Research involves many failures where hypotheses don't yield results, so you have to stay focused. Failure doesn't mean you won't succeed. I enjoy solving complex problems, like recently succeeding with single-cell RNA sequencing of eosinophils after deciding I had to do it.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice is to fake it till you make it and never stop learning. Every day thousands of research articles come out with new ideas, so stay curious to new ideas and technologies, and pursue collaboration because you cannot do everything on your own.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Believe in yourself, stay curious, and don't get intimidated by challenges. If your experiment doesn't succeed the way you want, you might have discovered something new that leads to future success. Pay attention to unexpected results.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is bridging the gap between basic research and clinical applications. The opportunity lies in rapid advancement of technologies like single-cell RNA sequencing, omics, and flow cytometry, which allow better understanding of the immune system for targeted therapies and vaccine development.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity, curiosity, collaboration, and honesty are most important. Be honest about your data, even negative results have meaning. In science, publish whatever you got without dismissing negative results, believe in yourself, stay curious, and collaborate as much as possible.
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