السيرة الذاتية
السيرة الذاتية
مختصر السيرة الذاتية
As a graduate student under the supervision of Dr. Humaira Gowher at Purdue
University’s Department of Biochemistry, I had the privilege of collaborating with talented
members of Gowher lab and contributed many publications. My research involved the use of
embryonic stem cells and embryonal carcinoma cell differentiation as model system to study
how enhancers fail to be silenced in cancer stem cells. Further, in our manuscript submitted to
Molecular Cell, we determined a mechanism by which these enhancers acquire a primed state
prone to activation. These primed enhancers are what render these cells plastic under the many
environmental conditions.
In order to decipher how DNA methyltransferases are recruited and targeted to specific
sites and how this mechanism is disrupted in cancer, I refined a DNA methyltransferase
capture method. By the use of a suicide inhibitor, we demonstrated that we could capture DNA
methyltransferases as they exert their catalytic activity onto their DNA substrate. This novel
method can be used to investigate dynamic changes of DNA methylation deposited by specific
DNA methyltransferases during cellular differentiation.
Additionally, I am a co-author on a 2018 publication in J. Biol. Chem., where we
illustrated how the transcription factor Vezf1 is critical for endothelial lineage determination
via regulating the expression of stem cell factor, Cbp/p300-interacting transactivator 2
(Cited2). We showed that Vezf1 depleted cells have higher expression of Cited2. Given Vezf1
reported role as an insulator protein, our data highlights a mechanism by which Vezf1
occupancy at Cited2 promoter prevents aberrant promoter activation by blocking inappropriate
interactions of promoters with nearby enhancers.
Since becoming part of Dr. Gowher’s laboratory in 2015, I have been able to co-author
in two published manuscripts and one, which I am the first co-author. I also attended many
national conferences such as the Midwest Chromatin and Epigenetics Meeting and American
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Meeting to name a few. I also mentored
seven ambitious and talented undergraduate students as well as several graduate students
during their rotations periods in the lab. My experiences in research and training acquired in
US equipped me to perform my role as an academic in Saudi Arabia.
University’s Department of Biochemistry, I had the privilege of collaborating with talented
members of Gowher lab and contributed many publications. My research involved the use of
embryonic stem cells and embryonal carcinoma cell differentiation as model system to study
how enhancers fail to be silenced in cancer stem cells. Further, in our manuscript submitted to
Molecular Cell, we determined a mechanism by which these enhancers acquire a primed state
prone to activation. These primed enhancers are what render these cells plastic under the many
environmental conditions.
In order to decipher how DNA methyltransferases are recruited and targeted to specific
sites and how this mechanism is disrupted in cancer, I refined a DNA methyltransferase
capture method. By the use of a suicide inhibitor, we demonstrated that we could capture DNA
methyltransferases as they exert their catalytic activity onto their DNA substrate. This novel
method can be used to investigate dynamic changes of DNA methylation deposited by specific
DNA methyltransferases during cellular differentiation.
Additionally, I am a co-author on a 2018 publication in J. Biol. Chem., where we
illustrated how the transcription factor Vezf1 is critical for endothelial lineage determination
via regulating the expression of stem cell factor, Cbp/p300-interacting transactivator 2
(Cited2). We showed that Vezf1 depleted cells have higher expression of Cited2. Given Vezf1
reported role as an insulator protein, our data highlights a mechanism by which Vezf1
occupancy at Cited2 promoter prevents aberrant promoter activation by blocking inappropriate
interactions of promoters with nearby enhancers.
Since becoming part of Dr. Gowher’s laboratory in 2015, I have been able to co-author
in two published manuscripts and one, which I am the first co-author. I also attended many
national conferences such as the Midwest Chromatin and Epigenetics Meeting and American
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Meeting to name a few. I also mentored
seven ambitious and talented undergraduate students as well as several graduate students
during their rotations periods in the lab. My experiences in research and training acquired in
US equipped me to perform my role as an academic in Saudi Arabia.