Dhifaf obtained her BSc in Pharmacy from the College of Pharmacy, University of Baghdad in 2001 where she worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Pharmaceutics for several years. In 2011, she completed her MSc in Drug Delivery with Distinction in the School of Pharmacy, University of London. Her research project was carried out in the Nanomedicine Lab and involved the development of liposome-gold nanoparticle hybrids for optical imaging and theranostic applications. In 2012, she was awarded the Overseas Research Scholarship (ORS) Award from the University of London for her PhD studies at the UCL School of Pharmacy. She relocated with the Nanomedicine Lab at the University of Manchester to continue her PhD. Her thesis focused on the development of graphene oxide derivatives for biomedical applications. Since January 2016 she is the Imaging Scientist in Prof Kostas Kostarelos’ group focusing on the utilisation of various whole-body imaging modalities available.