Dr. Maryam is a postdoctoral fellow in the Barthel Lab, where she investigates pathogenic genomes by generating personalized genome assemblies from clinical patient samples. Her research focuses on identifying genomic structural rearrangements and variants linked to disease development, particularly in brain tumor cohorts. She integrates next-generation sequencing technologies with advanced bioinformatics approaches to analyze structural variants, copy number alterations, and haplotypes variants. By leveraging multi-omic datasets from clinical genomes, she aims to uncover the mechanisms driving genomic instability and its role in disease progression. Currently, she leads two major research projects with principal investigator Dr. Barthel: one in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic examining ploidy in genome instability and telomere dysfunction in glioma, and another investigating Bloom syndrome to clarify genetic origins, haplotype ancestry, and clinical variants in patients and carriers.
Prior to joining the Barthel Lab, Dr. Maryam’s research centered on genome evolution and organization, using supernumerary chromosomes as a model system. These extra, non-essential chromosomes, found in certain species, contribute to genetic diversity and adaptation. Through genome sequencing, assembly, and comparative genomics, she explored their structural organization, evolutionary dynamics, and functional significance, providing key insights into how these chromosomes emerge, persist, and shape genome evolution.
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