Dr. Waqas Younis

Dr. Waqas Younis is a pharmacist and cardiovascular pharmacologist whose research focuses on vascular biology and cardiometabolic disease. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Qarshi University, Pakistan, where he combines research, teaching, and postgraduate mentorship with a strong commitment to advancing cardiovascular science.

Dr. Younis earned his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Sargodha, Pakistan, in 2019, where his doctoral research focused on vascular dysfunction and hypertension. His research training extended internationally through fellowships at the University of Nottingham, UK, and the University of Strasbourg, France. He subsequently served as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Lahore, where he established a postgraduate experimental pharmacology laboratory, supervised MPhil and PhD researchers, and promoted research-driven teaching and scientific training.

His research focuses on understanding how alterations in vascular and endothelial biology contribute to cardiovascular and cardiometabolic disease and how these pathways can be therapeutically targeted. His research interests include atherosclerosis, hypertension, endothelial dysfunction, vascular inflammation, oxidative stress, nitric oxide signaling, and endothelial lipid metabolism.

During his postdoctoral research at Rutgers–New Jersey Medical School, under the mentorship of Prof. Annie Beuve, Dr. Younis investigated vascular protective mechanisms of transnitrosation signaling involving soluble guanylyl cyclase under oxidative stress. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at NYU Langone Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, in the laboratory of Dr. Ira J. Goldberg, an internationally recognized physician-scientist and expert in lipid metabolism, lipoprotein biology, and atherosclerosis. His work there focused on endothelial uptake of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and its contribution to vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis.

Dr. Younis has authored or co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, including research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Nature Communications, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. His multidisciplinary approach integrates pharmacology, molecular biology, vascular physiology, and experimental models of cardiovascular disease to uncover disease mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic targets.

As an educator and mentor, Dr. Younis is committed to research-led teaching, critical thinking, and hands-on scientific training, with the goal of inspiring students and young researchers to contribute to advances in cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health.