Mohammed Farooqui, Ph.D.


Contact Information

Professor
Office: ESCNE 4.635
Phone: (956) 665-3543
Email: mohammed.farooqui@utrgv.edu


Currently Teaching

  • BIOL 2402 - Anatomy & Physiology II
  • BIOL 4316 - Environmental Toxicology
  • BIOL 3405 - Histology

Education

  • PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, 1979, Major: Entomology
  • MS, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, 1975, Major: Entomology
  • MS, Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, 1970, Major: Agriculture
  • BS, Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, 1968, Major: Agriculture

Areas of Expertise

  • Environmental Toxicology
  • Biotransformation
  • Metabolism

Research

My research focus is on the toxicity and metabolism of environmental and industrial chemicals such as pesticides and aliphatic nitriles. My doctoral dissertation research was on the toxicity and metabolism of DDT and its analogs in houseflies. My postdoctoral research involved toxicity and metabolism of acrylonitrile, a monomer of plastic products. This chemical agent was once used as a pesticide and is routinely used as a starting material for synthesis of various types of polymers. It is found to be an ulcerogen and a carcinogen in rodents. At UTRGV I continued my research on a related chemical agent methacrylonitrile and its toxicity and metabolism in mice, rats and gerbils. My research also involved some experiments on the toxicity of formaldehyde, role of glutathione, and effect of caffeine and various dosing vehicles on the toxicity and metabolism of aliphatic nitriles.


Recent Publications

Farooqui, M.Y.H. and A.E. Ahmed. 1982. Molecular interactions of Acrylonitrile and Potassium Cyanide with Rat Blood. Chem-Biol. Interact. 38, 145-159.

Ahmed, A.E. and M.Y.H. Farooqui. 1982. Comparative Toxicities of Aliphatic Nitriles. Toxicol. Lett. 12, 157-163.

Ahmed, A.E., M.Y.H. Farooqui, R.K. Upreti and O. Elshabrawy. 1982. Distribution and Covalent Interactions of 1-14C Acrylonitrile in Rats. Toxicology. 23, 159-175.

Farooqui, M.Y.H. and R.L. Metcalf. 1983. Comparative Metabolism of Six Ethoxychlor Analogs and DDT in DDT-Resistant and Susceptible Strains of the Housefly Musca domestica L. Pestic. Biochem. Physiol. 19, 210-220.

Farooqui, M.Y.H. and R.L. Metcalf. 1983. Penetrations and Excretion of Effective Ethoxychlor Analogs and DDT in DDT-Resistant and Susceptible Houseflies. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 12, 489-497.

Ahmed, A.E., Farooqui, M.Y.H., R.K. Upreti and O. Elshabrawy. 1983. Comparative Toxicokinetics of 2,3 14-C and 1-14C Acrylonitrile in the Rat. J. Appl. Toxicol. 3, 39-47.

Farooqui, M.Y.H. 1983. Formaldehyde-A Toxicology Update. J. Appl. Toxicol.3, 264-266.

Farooqui, M.Y.H. and A.E. Ahmed. 1983. The Effects of Acrylonitrile on Hemoglobin and Red Cell Metabolism. J. Toxicol. Environ. Hlth. 12, 695-707.

Farooqui, M.Y.H. and A.E. Ahmed. 1983. In vivo Interactions of Acrylonitrile with Macromolecules in Rats. Chem.-Biol. Interact. 47, 363-371.

Farooqui, M.Y.H. and A.E. Ahmed. 1984. Circadian Periodicity of Tissue Glutathione and its Relationship with Lipid Peroxidation in Rats. Life Sci. 34, 2413-2418.

Ahmed, A.E., M.Y.H. Farooqui and N.M. Trieff. 1985. Nitriles. In: Bioactivation of Foreign Compounds. (Ed: M.W. Anders). Academic Press. New York. 485-518.

Forkert, P.G., Forkert, L., M.Y.H. Farooqui and E.S. Reynolds. 1985. Lung Injury and Repair: DNA Synthesis following 1,1-Dichloroethylene. Toxicology 36, 199-214.

Farooqui, M.Y.H., M.M. Mumtaz, B.I. Ghanayem and A.E. Ahmed. 1990. Hemoglobin Degradation, Lipid Peroxidation and Inhibition of Na+/K+-ATPase in Rat Erythrocytes Exposed to Acrylonitrile. J. Biochem. Toxicol. 5, 221-227

Mumtaz, M.M., M.Y.H. Farooqui, B.I. Ghanayem, S. Rajaraman, L. Frankenburg and A.E. Ahmed.1991.Studies on the Mechanism of Urotoxic Effects of N,N'-Dimethyl aminopropionitrile in Rats and Mice: 1. Biochemical and Morphologic Characterization of the Injury and its Relationship to Metabolism. J. Toxicol. Environ. Health 33, 1-17.

Ghanayem, B.I., M.Y.H. Farooqui, O. Elshabrawy, M.M. Mumtaz and A.E. Ahmed, 1991. Assessment of the Acute Acrylonitrile-Induced Neurotoxicity in Rats. Neurotoxicol. Teratol. 13, 499-502.

Mumtaz, M.M., M.Y.H. Farooqui, B.I. Ghanayem and A.E. Ahmed. 1991. The Urotoxic Effects of N, N'- Dimethylaminopropionitrile: 2. In vivo and in vitro Metabolism. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol.110, 61- 69.

Farooqui, M.Y.H., B. Ybarra, J. Piper and A. Tamez. 1995. Effect of Dosing Vehicle on the Toxicity and Metabolism of Unsaturated Aliphatic Nitriles. J. Appl. Toxicol. 15, 411- 420.

Mumtaz, M. M., Farooqui, M. Y. H., Cannon-Cook, E. P. and Ahmed, A. E. 1997. Propionitrile: Whole Body Autoradiography, Conventional Toxicokinetics and Metabolism Studies in Rats. Toxicology and Industrial Health 13: 1-16

Farooqui, M.Y.H., M. Trevino, and I. Garcia. 2010. Effect of Alcohol and Caffeine on the Toxicity and Metabolism of Methacrylonitrile. In Male Sprague Dawley rats. Res. Commun. Pharmacol.

Contact Us

For questions or assistance please reach out to:

School Director
Robert K. Dearth, Ph.D.


School Associate Director
Kathryn E. Perez, Ph.D.


Biology Undergraduate Program Coordinator
Tobias Weinrich, Ph.D.

Biology and Chemistry Graduate Program Coordinator
Frank Dirrigl, Ph.D.

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program Coordinator
Yonghong Zhang, Ph.D.


Edinburg
Julie Perez,
Administrative Assistant II


Brownsville
Daisy Garcia,
Administrative Assistant II