Cassandra Naidoo, Ph.D.

Dr. Cassandra Naidoo is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Barry University. Born and raised in South Africa, she completed her entire academic training at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, culminating in a Ph.D. in Cell Biology. As part of her doctoral research, she conducted a research placement at the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Dendrology, where she studied cryopreservation and free radical chemistry within an international, cross-disciplinary team. She went on to complete postdoctoral fellowships at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Cape Town, where her research addressed plant cryopreservation, desiccation tolerance and free radical chemistry, as well as proteomic profiling of placental tissue in HIV-infected pregnant women. Her doctoral and postdoctoral work produced seven peer-reviewed publications across four international journals and multiple presentations at international conferences, and she served for several years as a peer reviewer for the South African Journal of Botany.

Dr. Naidoo's career has since taken her across three continents. In South Africa, she held faculty and research positions spanning Cell Biology, Molecular Biology and Agricultural Science. In China, she taught IB and CAIE Biology and advised students on university admissions, mentoring cohorts that went on to earn places at Ivy League and other top-tier institutions. In the United States, she has led science curriculum design and academic program development before joining Barry University, where she brings her research background and international teaching experience to the graduate classroom. Her interests include nutraceutical development toward remediating inflammatory related conditions, epigenetics and the design of rigorous, evidence-based science curricula.