Our Research Center
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People
Dr. Ehsan Pourkarimi D
Principle investigator
Assistant Professor in Genomics and Precision Medicine
Dr. Ehsan Pourkarimi, did his undergraduate study at ELTE university in Budapest, Hungary. After receiving a Cancer Research UK fellowship, he moved to the United Kingdom. He joined the Lab of Prof. Anton Gartner in the Wellcome Trust Center for Gene Regulation and Expression at the University of Dundee. During his Ph.D., Dr. Pourkarimi characterized the key components of the core apoptosis machinery in C. elegans and challenged the well-accepted model of apoptosis induction. Focused on chromatin biology, his post-doctoral research delved into the effect of chromatin modifiers in cellular response during acute stress conditions. Using the SILAC-based proteomics approach, Dr. Pourkarimi demonstrated the significance of Histone H3.3 variants in aging and also during acute starvation. As a Research Associate in the Lab of Dr. Iestyn Whitehouse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, Dr. Pourkarimi studied DNA replication.
Using C. elegans embryos, he mapped DNA replication origins, creating the first comprehensive map of DNA replication from a multicellular organism. In 2020 he moved to Qatar as principal investigator and assistant professor in Genomics and Precision Medicine (GPM) and established his research lab in Qatar. His Lab uses cutting-edge technology such as epigenome editing to tackle the fundamental question in chromatin biology, from DNA damage response to understanding the mechanism of epigenetic memory.
Mahmoud Izadi
PhD Student
Mahmoud did his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Shiraz and Tabriz university in Iran. Upon his graduation and working a few years as a research assistant at Royan institute, he joined our Lab in 2020 to pursue his Ph.D. studies in Genomics and Precision Medicine. His current Ph.D. project is to identify novel players of DNA damage response in C. elegans. He also models various human disease-causing mutations in the model system to understand their biological relevance in human health and diseases.
Tayyiba Akbar Ali
PhD Student
Tayyiba did her BSc. at Qatar University, then worked as a research assistant for two years in the molecular pathophysiology lab at Hamad medical corporation. In 2019, she got into Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU) to pursue her degree in Genomics and Precision Medicine and joined Pourkarimi’s lab. Her MSc. work defined a novel translational role of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (AaRSs). She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. studies in our lab, continuing her research on AaRSs and DNA damage Response.
Farah Shurrab
MSc Student
Farah received her BSc. In biological sciences from Qatar University in 2018. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant in the college of medicine in QU. Later, Farah worked in the Biomedical Research Center (BRC) where she participated in different research projects related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Farah is pursuing her master's degree in Genomics and Precision Medicine at Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU). She joined Pourkarimi research group, where she will be investigating the role of histone modification in DNA damage repair and genotoxic insult induced apoptosis in C.elegans.
Dr. Abeer Jamal Mahdi
Visiting PhD Student
Dr. Abeer is a Ph.D. student of the Genomics and Precision Medicine program at HBKU. She works at Dr. Nady and Dr. Ehsan's lab to pursue her P.hD. research project. Abeer is interested in using C.elegans as an animal model for studying aging-related human disorders. The first aging-related gene, associated with the genetic regulation of life span has been identified in C elegans. That made Abeer excited to join our lab to functionally characterize her candidate genes using our models' system. C.elegans has been frequently utilized as an ideal living system for aging studies due to their small body size, short lifespan, and homologs of about two-thirds of all human disease-causing genes. Currently, she is humanizing C. elegans to identify how the overexpression of her gene of interest can affect C.elegans lifespan. She leads a collaborative project with our lab and Nady's at HBKU.
Nagham Hindi
Visiting PhD Student
Nagham is a Ph.D. Student and Research Assistant in Dr. Nemer’s laboratory working on a study to identify the polygenic risk scores for vitamin D levels and characterize the novel short-dehydrogenase reductase protein (SDR42E1) in vitamin D deficiency in regional and European populations. Nagham joined our lab as part of our collaborative research with Dr. Georges Nemer to functionally characterize the SDR42E1 in C. elegans. Before joining HBKU as a Ph.D. student, Nagham was a Lecturer and Research Assistant in the Pharmacy School at the University of Jordan.