I'm passionate about science education, promoting scientific literacy, and the importance of preparing future researchers and citizens for the challenges of the 21st century. My academic experience includes classical genetics, cell and developmental biology, evolution, genomics, computational biology and statistics. Training in these broad but overlapping topics has been excellent preparation for teaching a wide array of courses and allows me to comfortably discuss biological models at multiple levels of resolution. This helps with providing students perspectives that best suit their interests and understanding. My foundations in developmental genetics and molecular biology, combined with my active research in genomics, population genetics and computational biology, have given me a deep reservoir of examples for illustrating and explaining concepts in biology, as well as a passion for empowering students by preparing them to use scientific reasoning to better understand biology and their world.
My teaching experience includes two years of teaching Introduction to Genetics Laboratory sections, graduate school classes on Functional Genomics, introductory undergraduate courses like Foundations of Science, and advanced classes, such as Evolutionary Medicine, in addition to mentoring and evaluating Capstone projects. I have been mentoring undergraduate students for over 10 years, and have listed some of my recent undergraduate collaborators below.
Recently Mentored Undergraduate Collaborators
JooHee Choi
JooHee is a senior at NYU Abu Dhabi, hailing from South Korea. Her current research involves the identification and characterization of the transposable element landscape in date palm- a culturally and economically significant crop in Abu Dhabi and the region around it. Here work is a collaboration involving members of the the Boissinot and Purugganan labs. After NYUAD, JooHee will continue her training and research as a doctoral student in biology.
Ridda Manzoor
Ridda is a senior at NYUAD majoring in biology with a concentration in Social Research and Public Policy. As a part of her senior thesis, Ridda is working on the relationship between DNA methylation and transposon expression in zebrafish uhrf1 mutants. Here work is a collaboration involving members of the the Boissinot and Sadler Edeplilabs. After NYUAD, Ridda plans on attending medical school.
Sudikchya Shrestha
Sudikchya is a senior at NYUAD majoring in Biology. Growing up in Nepal she developed a deep appreciation for biodiversity and is interested in studying the fundamental mechanisms that lead to such diversity. Her research has focussed on Ethiopian frogs, including the identification of novel families of transposable elements in this group. After NYUAD, Sudikchya will continue her training and research as a biology doctoral student in England.
Anique Ahmad
Anique is a second year student at NYUAD and is interested in biology, bioinformatics and genomics. His research investigates patterns of polymorphic transposable element insertions in and around developmentally important genes and regulatory regions. This project combines computational and laboratory research, and is sure to make for an exiting capstone project and first publication.