Dr Rashidah Abdul Rahim is an Associate Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, USM where she serves as the Manager of Biotechnology and Microbiology Programmes. She has been based at SBS since 2002. Her research focuses on a hydrolase group enzyme, particularly lipases from extremophiles and the structure-function relationship of the hydrolytic enzyme for the molecular adaptation and various enzyme applications. She is also interested in microbial diversity studies from extreme environments. Lipase producing bacteria have been screened and isolated from species adapted to extreme environments such as those of the Antarctic and hot springs. The gene that encodes the enzyme will be cloned, characterized and over expressed in order to achieve the ultimate aim of the related research which is to study the structure-functional relationship of the hydrolytic enzyme.
Dr Rashidah has a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from University of Sheffield, United Kingdom and a PhD in Enzyme Technology (Biochemistry from Universiti Putra Malaysia.