Biography

Dr. Yazdani is an assistant professor in the Division of Clinical and Translational Sciences, Department of Internal Medicine, at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), McGovern Medical School. Dr. Yazdani’s academic training (MS, and PhD) was in statistical sciences, developing Bayesian methods and machine learning algorithms for large-scale biomolecular data. Her postdoctoral training in human genetics was at UTHealth, School of Public Health, with Dr. Boerwinkle and at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Prior to joining UTHealth as a faculty member, she was a research scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research is broadly focused on developing and applying algorithms to systematically integrate multi-omics data and uncover unknown biological mechanisms of complex diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Education

MSc in Statistics (2002-2005)
University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran
PhD in Statistical sciences (2011-2014)
University of Padova, Padova, Italy
Postdoctoral training in Human Genetics (2014-2016)
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Postdoctoral training in Human Genetics (2016-2019)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York

Areas of Interest

Clinical Interests

Uncovering the genetic bases of unknown biological mechanisms of complex diseases and response to treatment requires the identification of biomolecule interconnectivity and their complex interactions. Dr. Yazdani’s research focuses on developing and applying system biology approaches to integrate multi-omics data (such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) and study interactions among biomolecules. She develops Bayesian and machine learning algorithms to identify biomolecular network and relate it to clinical outcomes and risk factors. She also develops methods for studying the genetic architecture of disease risks. In particular, Dr. Yazdani is interested in understanding the biological mechanisms of cancer progression and response to treatment, the cardiotoxicity of the therapies, and cardiovascular disease.