Ardalan Naseri, PhD joined the UTHealth Houston School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI) in May 2022 as an assistant professor.

Prior to his appointment, he worked as a research scientist at SBMI. Dr. Naseri has a broad background in Computer Science, with specific training and expertise in algorithm design, bioinformatics, and computational biology. He holds a PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida and obtained his Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.

His research area includes the development of computational methods for analyzing large-scale biobank data. He has developed, implemented, and utilized several algorithms and pipelines related to population genetics and genomics. In recent years, he has developed a wide range of tools for solving population genetics problems in large-scale cohorts, such as Identity-by-Descent segment detection, genealogical search, and relatedness inference. Dr. Naseri has also conducted collaborative work in multidisciplinary team settings with biologists working on cutting-edge tools such as CRISPR-based DNA imaging.

“Recent advances in sequencing technology have led to the generation of abundant genetic and genomic data. The availability of large cohorts of genetic data provides a ubiquitous opportunity for a wide range of applications. At the same time, it brings a challenge to efficiently utilize the data. One of our main focuses is to develop efficient and practical algorithms that can handle large data without requiring extensive and costly resources.”

Education

• PhD, Computer Science, University of Central Florida, 2018
• MS, Computer Science, Technical University of Darmstadt, 2012
• BS, Computer Science, Technical University of Darmstadt, 2010

Areas of Expertise

• Algorithms
• Computational Biology
• Bioinformatics
• Population Genetics

Selected Publications

1. Ma, Hanhui, Ardalan Naseri, Pablo Reyes-Gutierrez, Scot A. Wolfe, Shaojie Zhang, and Thoru Pederson. "Multicolor CRISPR labeling of chromosomal loci in human cells." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 10 (2015): 3002-3007.
2. Ma, Hanhui, Li-Chun Tu, Ardalan Naseri, Yu-Chieh Chung, David Grunwald, Shaojie Zhang, and Thoru Pederson. "CRISPR-Sirius: RNA scaffolds for signal amplification in genome imaging." Nature methods 15, no. 11 (2018): 928-931.
3. Naseri, Ardalan, Xiaoming Liu, Kecong Tang, Shaojie Zhang, and Degui Zhi. 2019. “RaPID: Ultra-Fast, Powerful, and Accurate Detection of Segments Identical by Descent (IBD) in Biobank-Scale Cohorts.” Genome Biology 20 (1): 143.
4. Naseri, Ardalan, Kecong Tang, Xin Geng, Junjie Shi, Jing Zhang, Pramesh Shakya, Xiaoming Liu, Shaojie Zhang, and Degui Zhi. "Personalized genealogical history of UK individuals inferred from biobank-scale IBD segments." BMC biology 19, no. 1 (2021): 1-12.
5. Naseri, Ardalan, Junjie Shi, Xihong Lin, Shaojie Zhang, and Degui Zhi. "RAFFI: Accurate and fast familial relationship inference in large scale biobank studies using RaPID." PLoS Genetics 17, no. 1 (2021): e1009315.