Iman Tavassoly (MD, PhD)

Current Position: Post-doc Research Fellow Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics

Systems Biology Center New York Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY10029

Education

PhD

(Genetics, Bioinformatics and

Computational Biology ) GPA: 3.9, Outstanding Interdisciplinary Doctoral

Student of Virginia Tech in 2011/2012

(Mentor: John Tyson)

July 2013

Virginia Tech and Virginia Bioinformatics

Institute

Graduate Certificate - Future

Professoriate Certificate

Spring 2013 Virginia Tech

MD 2007 Mazandaran University of Medical

Sciences, Iran.

Diploma

(Biological Sciences and Mathematics)

1999 National Organization for Development of the Exceptional Talents (NODET), Iran.

Memberships

Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board (IRB) (2010-2013) Interdisciplinary Research Honor Society at Virginia Tech (2010-Present)

Research and Trainings Experiences and Appointments

Howard-Hughes Medical Institute Workshop of

Teaching Systems Biology Center for Complex Biological

Systems, UC Irvine

Jan 2013

National Short Course in Systems Biology:

Morphogenesis & Spatial Dynamics (Fellowship

Award)

Center for Complex Biological Systems, UC Irvine

Jan 2013

Visiting Scholar in Physics and Mathematics of

Cancer Program (Fellowship Award) The Kavli Institute for Theoretical

Physics (KITP), UC Santa Barbara

May -July

2012

Visiting Researcher and Graduate Student,

(Project: Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy

of Autophagic Response in Cancer Cells)

Clarke Labs, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center,

Georgetown University Medical

Centre

May 2011- Jan 2012

1

Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy Course

(Fellowship Award)

Mount Desert Island Biological

Laboratory

May 2011

NIH Sponsored PhosphoFlow/Immune Monitoring

Training Course

Stanford University 2011

Computational Cell Biology Meeting Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2011

Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics Course Uppsala University, Sweden 2011

Visiting Graduate Student Department of Systems Biology,

Harvard Medical School

Dec 2010-

Jan 2011

Bootcamp in Cancer Modeling Mathematical Biosciences Institute, Ohio State University

Sept 2010

Visiting Graduate Student and Researcher, (Project: Exploring Signaling Pathways Regulating Autophagy in Breast Cancer Cells)

Workshop of Dynamics of Signal Transduction and of Gene-Protein Regulatory Networks

Clarke Labs, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center,

Georgetown University Medical

Centre

Mathematical Biosciences Institute,

Ohio State University

May 2010- Aug 2010

Nov 2009

International Summer School of Oncology

(Fellowship Award) Groningen University Medical

Centre, the Netherlands

2006

ISCOMS Research Fellow (Fellowship Award) Groningen University Medical

Centre, the Netherlands 2005

Organizer of the Workshop: Chaos and Fractals in Biologic Systems and Their Applications in

Biomedical Sciences

Groningen University Medical

Centre, the Netherlands

2005

Academic Awards and Honors

Outstanding Interdisciplinary Doctoral Student Award of 2011/2012 Virginia Tech

Best Poster Award in Virginia Tech 1st Cancer Symposium, 2011 Virginia Tech

Transdisciplinary Team Science (TTS) Fellowship (Two-year fellowship

award) 2009

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute

Second Global Ubaydli Scholarship for Mobile Medical Computing,

2007

USA

2

Outstanding Medical Student Researcher, 2004-2006 Mazandaran University of

Medical Sciences

Outstanding Medical student of the Year, 2003 Mazandaran University of

Medical Sciences

Travel Fellowship Awards

Fellowship Award for National Short Course in: Systems Biology, 2013 UC Irvine

Fellowship Award for Physics and Mathematics of Cancer Program

,2012

KITP, UC Santa Barbara

Fellowship award for Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy Course,

2011

Mount Desert Island Biological

Laboratory

Fellowship award for Summer School of Oncology, 2006 Groningen University, the

Netherlands

Fellowship award for ISCOMS Research Program, 2005 Groningen University, the

Netherlands

Fellowship Award for the International Student Congress of (bio)Medical

Sciences, 2005

Groningen University, the

Netherlands

Publications

Tavassoly I, Shajahan AN, Baumann WT, Clarke R., Tyson JJ, Dynamical Modeling of Autophagy and

Apoptosis Interplay in Cancer Cells., (Manuscript is being submitted )

Tavassoly I, Shajahan AN, Baumann WT, Tyson JJ, Clarke R., Dynamics of Autophagic Response in

Single Breast Cancer Cells, (Manuscript is being submitted)

Parmar J, Cook KL, Shajahan AN, Clarke PAG, Tavassoly I, Clarke R, Tyson JJ, and Baumann WT,

Modeling the Effect of GRP78 on Anti-estrogen Sensitivity and Resistance in Breast Cancer, Interface

Focus 3 (4).

Clarke R, Cook KL, Hu R, Facey CO, Tavassoly I, Schwartz JL et al. Endoplasmic reticulum

stress, the unfolded protein response, autophagy, and the integrated regulation of breast cancer cell fate. Cancer Research 2012; 72(6): 1321-31.

Tyson JJ, Baumann WT, Chen C, Verdugo A, Tavassoly I, Wang Y et al. Dynamic modelling of

oestrogen signalling and cell fate in breast cancer cells. Nature Reviews Cancer 2011; 11(7): 523- 32.

Clarke R, Shajahan AN, Wang Y, Tyson JJ, Riggins RB, Weiner LM, Baumann WT, Xuan J, Zhang B, Facey CO , Aiyer H, Cook KL, Hickman FE, Tavassoly I, et al. Endoplasmic reticulum stress, the unfolded protein response, and gene network modeling in antiestrogen resistant breast cancer. Hormone Molecular Biology and Clinical Investigation 2011; 5(1): 35-44.

3

Tavassoly I, Tavassoly O, Rad M.S.R, Dastjerdi N.M, Multifractal Analysis of Chaos Game Representation Images of mtDNA, Proceeding of the IEEE Conference Frontiers in the Convergence of Bioscience and Information Technologies (FBIT 2007), October 2007, pp224-229, IEEE Press, ISBN 0-7695-2999-2.

Tavassoly I, Tavassoly O, Rad M.S.R, Dastjerdi N.M, Three Dimensional Chaos Game

Representation of Genomic Sequences, Proceeding of the IEEE Conference Frontiers in the

Convergence of Bioscience and Information Technologies (FBIT 2007), October 2007, pp219-223, IEEE Press, ISBN 0-7695-2999-2.

Tavassoly I, Tavassoly O, Rad M.S.R, Chaos Game Representation of mtDNA: Is it

Useful in Phylogenetic Studies? (Abstract), BMC Systems Biology 2007, 1(Suppl 1):P35.

Tavassoly I, Tavassoly O, Fractal Analysis of Radiological Images: A Novel Quantitative Approach (Abstract), Iranian Journal of Radiology (2007), 4 (Supp. 2), p: 24.

Tavassoly O, Namin S.A.M, Akbari M.T., Tavassoly I, Utilization of Cell-Free Fetal DNA in

Maternal Plasma for Prenatal Diagnosis of Paternity as a Non-invasive Method (Abstract), The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine (2008), 21 (Supp.1), p:284.

Book Contributions

Gene Therapy in Encyclopedia of Cancer and Society (Colditz G.A), SAGE publications, 2008

Gene Silencing in Encyclopedia of Global Health (Zhang Y), SAGE publications, 2008

Gene Array Analysis in Encyclopedia of Global Health (Zhang Y), SAGE publications, 2008.

Hormone Disorders in Encyclopedia of Obesity (Keller K), Sage Publications 2008

Histamines in Encyclopedia of Obesity (Keller K), Sage Publications 2008

Mendelian Disorders Related to Obesity in Encyclopedia of Obesity (Keller K), SAGE Publications 2008

CD36 and FAT in Encyclopedia of Obesity (Keller K), Sage Publications 2008

Talks in Scientific and Medical Meetings

Autophagic Response in Cancer Cells: Mathematical Modeling and Experimental Observations

Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP), UC Santa Barbara, June 2012

Autophagic Response in Single Cancer Cells

Virginia Tech GSA Research Symposium, March 2012

Systems Biology of Cell Death Pathways in Breast Cancer Cells

National Cancer Institutes ICBP (Integrative Cancer Biology Program) Junior Investigators Meeting, MIT 2011

4

Mathematical Modeling of Cell Fate Mediated by Autophagy in Breast Cancer Cells

Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center, June 2011.

Multifractal Analysis of Chaos Game Representation Images of mtDNA,

Workshop of Emerging Topics in Human Functional Genomics and Proteomics, Turkey 2006

Screening of the Patients with Arrhythmia from Healthy Subjects Based on Fractal Dimension of Heart

Rate Variability by an Artificial Neural Network

12th

International Students Congress of Medical Sciences, (ISCOMS), Groningen University Medical Center,

the Netherlands, 2005

Poster Presentations at Scientific Meetings

Dynamical Modeling of Cell Fate Decision Mediated by Autophagy in Breast Cancer Cells

Southern California Systems Biology Conference, UC Irvine, 2013

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Research Day, 2012 Computational Cell Biology Meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2011

Virginia Tech Cancer Research Symposium, Virginia Tech 2011 (Best Poster Award)

Mathematical Modeling of Autophagy and Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) Interplay in

Breast Cancer Cells

National Cancer Institutes ICBP (Integrative Cancer Biology Program) Mathematical Biology Meeting, UC Berkeley 2011

Utilization of cell-free fetal DNA in Maternal Plasma for prenatal diagnosis of paternity as a non-invasive method

XXI European Congress of Perinatal Medicine, Turkey 2008

Multifractal Analysis of Chaos Game Representation Images of mtDNA

Systems Biology, Bioinformatics and Synthetic Biology Forum, Manchester University, 2007

Esophageal Cancer Belt of South-Central Asia

International Summer School Oncology for Medical Students, Groningen University Medical Center, the Netherlands, 2006

Computer Knowledge

Linux, R, C++, Matlab, Mathematica, XPPAUT, Oscill8 Dynamical Systems Toolset, COPASI, Cytoscape, Cell Designer, Windows, MS Office, LaTex

Laboratory Skills

Mammalian Cell Culture, PCR, Real Time PCR, Western Blot, Live-Cell Imaging, Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy, Immunohistochemistry Techniques, Flow Cytometry

5

Teaching Activities

Graduate Undergraduate Mentoring Program (GUMP), Virginia Tech, 2012

(Mentoring 5 Undergraduate Students on Systems Biology of Cancer)

K-12 Science Teaching (Kids Tech University), Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, 2011. (Hands-On

Exhibits of DNA Model and Heart Sounds)

Peer Reviewer

Journal of Genetics, DARU Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Extra-Curricular Activities

Invited Speaker at Virginia Tech Interdisciplinary Research Day, 2012

Published Photos: New York Times Photo Blog (2011) and New England Journal of

Medicine (2011)

Photography awards: Virginia Tech Graduate School Photo Contest Prize, Virginia Tech, 2009 and 2010

Speaker at April 16th Memorial Day (Peace and Poetry), Virginia Tech

Diploma in Independent Film-Making and Photography, Iranian Young Cinema Society, 2004

Director of a Short Film, Iranian Young Cinema Society, 2004

Language Abilities

Persian (Native Language)

Fluent in English

German (Basic)

6