Nishat’s professional background is as an academic.  She has a Ph.D (Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence) from the University of Manchester, where she was also a Graduate Teaching Assistant during her doctoral studies.   Her thesis explored the development of facilitative cross-border regulatory and governance frameworks for emerging biotechnologies.  Nishat has subsequently held postdoctoral research and teaching positions at universities in the Netherlands and Belgium.  Her postdoctoral work has focused largely on matters of reproductive rights and ethics – particularly assisted reproductive technologies – within national and international contexts.  Nishat takes a particular interest in women’s health and advances in femtech.  

Nishat is currently based at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, within the Brussels Research Institute on Development, Governance, and Empowerment, through Law (BRIDGE).  She is also a member of the Digitalisation and Access to Justice Research Group (DIKE) and Centre of Expertise on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality.  Her teaching and research extends to family matters, including private international family law.

Alongside research and teaching, Nishat is an active member of several hospital ethics committees at UZ Brussel.  She advises on urgent and ethically complex cases that arise in medical practice and assesses clinical trial dossiers for legal and ethical compliance.  Furthermore, Nishat advises on legal and ethical matters pertinent to development of clinical guidelines.  She therefore appreciates both the theoretical and practical complexities of healthcare and life science innovation.

Nishat read Law (LL.B and LL.M) at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  Although Nishat completed the Bar Vocational Course was Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2006 (Middle Temple), she did not practise as a barrister.