Uli Sobhiafshar

Current Research

I am interested in studying gene regulation and genomes in aquaculture species from both evolutionary and developmental biology perspectives. My current research focuses on how skeletal muscle tissue develops (myogenesis) in Atlantic salmon, and how a whole-genome duplication event specific to the salmonid family has affected this process. I am using samples from young Atlantic salmon and primary cell cultures, together with single-cell transcriptomics, to study this key developmental process.

Favourite Aquaculture species

At the moment Atlantic salmon but I have soft spot for all salmonid family!

Background

Gene regulation and expression has been at the heart of everything I've done, though the organisms and questions have changed quite a bit along the way. It all started with a BSc in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Tehran, Iran, where my fascination with chromatin and gene regulation started. That curiosity took me to Istanbul, Turkey, for an MSc and PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Boğaziçi University. There, I spent years digging into IRF4-driven epigenetic changes in cancer and the downstream effects of targeted therapy in melanoma. Somewhere towards the end of the PhD because of growing curiosity about genome and gene regulation in non-model species and a love for Scotland was the key two reasons for the next chapter in my research career. I joined Roslin Institute as a Core Scientist Research Fellow in the Chromatin and Epigenetics group, where the focus is now on salmonid biology. Specifically, I study gene regulation and expression during tissue development in Atlantic salmon, trying to understand how duplicated genes have taken on new or different roles since the salmonid-specific whole-genome duplication.

• [2006-2011]                     Undergraduate (Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Tehran, Iran)
• [2012-2015]                     MSc (Molecular Biology & Genetics, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey)
• [2015-2023]                     PhD (Transcriptional regulation in Cancer and effect of targetted therapies in melanoma epigenomics landscape)
• [2023-Present]  Core Scientist Postdoctoral Research Fellow (The Roslin Institute)

Interest , Hopes and Dreams

I love travelling, hiking, growing interest in paddle boarding and swimming in wild. I am nerd about a hardware in any computing machine! I occasionally do street and documentary amateur photography. Bookworm, Science and anthropology nerd! I hope I can have active life and working brain as long as I live!