Brick building entrance decorated with colorful balloons, green signs with contact info, and a small warning sign. The doorway is framed with a wooden awning and a red door, with a window inside.
A colorful logo featuring an umbrella with rainbow-colored segments, surrounded by multicolored teardrop shapes. Below, the text reads 'RASAÏ RESEARCH'.

RASAI RESEARCH

Independent clinical trial site —

patient-centered, community-led

Community-focused clinical trial site

Rasai Research is a physician-led clinical trial site dedicated to regulatory excellence and participant-centered research. Founded with a passion for streamlined operations, Rasai combines quality and efficiency to deliver fully compliant, high-performing studies.

black haired lady wearing a black coat

Meet the Site Director— Ammara Mushtaq, MD

As a physician and clinical investigator with ten years of experience, I started Rasai Research to address a critical gap in clinical trials: the underrepresentation of Asian and immigrant communities. Having worked across academic and independent research settings, I saw firsthand how systemic barriers—language, trust, access—limit participation from diverse populations. Rasai was born out of a desire to change that.

Clinically, I serve as a faculty member (Assistant Professor of Medicine) at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where I continue to bridge patient care, teaching, and research.

Our site is rooted in Jackson Heights, Queens—one of the most culturally rich neighborhoods in the country—and designed from the ground up to be both community-centered and inspection-ready. I’ve built Rasai with a dual focus: operational excellence that meets the highest standards of regulatory compliance.

At Rasai, we don’t just run studies—we build relationships, foster trust, and ensure that every protocol is implemented with precision and empathy. My goal is to create a research environment where sponsors see reliability, regulators see rigor, and participants see respect.

  • With over a decade of clinical and research experience, I founded Rasai Research to increase representation of Asian communities in clinical trials, build robust infrastructure for decentralized and remote study components, and uphold regulatory excellence at the site level. My approach combines scientific rigor with community-rooted engagement to ensure trials are both inclusive and operationally sound.

Community Engagement: A Strategic Advantage

A woman in a black headscarf and sunglasses is smiling as she gently touches a young boy's face outside a brick building. Several other people, including a man in a checkered shirt and a woman in a black outfit and headscarf, are standing nearby, smiling and observing. Balloons are tied to a black railing next to a chalkboard sign that reads 'Grand Opening'.

At Rasai Research, we leverage a trusted network of community health workers and cultural advocates to bridge the gap between clinical research and everyday lives. These frontline messengers—fluent in the values, and rhythms of Jackson Heights—engage participants where they live, worship, and gather. By embedding research literacy into existing community trust, we drive enrollment, reduce attrition, and ensure that studies reflect the populations most often left out. Our model delivers not just numbers, but meaningful, organic representation and long-term engagement.

Interested in participating or partnering?