---

Work exprience

Director - Gene Editing (Mar 2022 - Nov 2023)

Vector BioPharma, Basel, Switzerland.

• Led the genome editing team and contributed to the leadership team, defining short and long-term strategic initiatives in genomic medicine, managing the team budget, and delivering quarterly reports to the senior management team.
• Internalized a range of genome editing tools, including Prime and Base Editing technologies, as well as epigenome editing systems.
• Established an end-to-end Cas9 discovery pipeline, encompassing bioinformatics search and in-vitro characterization, resulting in patented advancements.
• Achieved efficacious in-vivo Prime Editing, leveraging proprietary gene delivery technology.
• Actively promoted the adoption of gene editing technologies in various research and development applications across the company.
• Procured an Illumina next-generation sequencing machine and established standard operating procedures for targeted sequencing.
• Established and implemented an Amazon Web Services-based cloud computing platform, eliminating the costs associated with procurement and maintenance of in-house computing servers.
• Developed and deployed bioinformatics pipelines and leveraged ChatGPT for developing web tools for intranet-based visualization of sequencing outputs, enabling streamlined data analysis and interpretation.

Senior Bioinformatocian (Sep 2020 - Feb 2022)

Discovery Sciences, AstraZeneca, Gothenburg, Sweden.

• Developed bioinformatics pipelines for guideRNA design, NGS data analysis, CHANGE-Seq, etc.
• Developed and maintained bioinformatics pipelines for in-silico prediction of CRISPR off-target effects, ranking target sites, and assessing their activity.
• Provided bioinformatics support for Target Identification and Validation in drug discovery programs, enabling Target Annotation and Prioritization.
• Designed DNA and RNA editing libraries and developed constructs for High-Throughput Screening assays.

Senior Scientist (Mar 2018 - Aug 2020)

Discovery Sciences, AstraZeneca, Gothenburg, Sweden.

• Designed CRISPR-based Therapeutic Genome-Editing strategies to treat rare genetic diseases.
• Created innovative assays to validate DNA repair inhibitory compounds.
• Developed and implemented the Rational Off-target Ranking Algorithm and confirmation by Sequencing (RORA-Seq, unpublished), enhancing CRISPR off-target detection through deep sequencing.

PostDoc (Mar 2015 - Feb 2018)

Discovery Sciences, AstraZeneca, Gothenburg, Sweden.

• Charachterization of Cas9 nuclease activity in human cells and profiling the DNA repair capacity of the cells using RIMA (published in Nucleic Acids Research).
• Comprehesive bioinformatics analysis of Cas9s from IIB family (please see patent here).
• Discovery of novel nuclease activity in Cas9-IIBs (please see patent here).
• Established a co-targeting enrichment startegy in Cas9 targeted cells (please see patent here).

Scientist (2014 - 2015)

• Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

Responsiblities:

• Established the Cell and Molecular Biology lab.
• Developed TALENs generation protocol.
• Designed embryo-based LDLR gene targeting in mouse.

---

Education

PhD (2009 - 2014)

• Molecular Genetics, Ferdowsi Univerity of Mashhad , Iran.
• Dissertation entitled: Engineering TALENs for Targeted Disruption and validation of Myostatin Gene in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells.
• Thesis work: Joined Prof. Paul Verma’s research team, at Monash Univeristy, Melbourne, Australia (2012-2013).

MSc (2007 - 2009)

• Molecular Genetics, Ferdowsi Univerity of Mashhad, Iran.
• Thesis entitled: Development of Quantitative Competitive PCR (qcPCR) and Absolute Based Real-Time PCR Assays for Quantification of Butyrate Producing Bacterium: Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens .

BSc (2001 - 2006)

• Animal Sciences, Kurdistan University, Sanandaj, Iran.
• University homepage: uok.ac.ir.

---

Download My Resume (PDF)