Masoumeh Es-haghi
I started my biological research carrier in 2006 during my MSc program in animal reproduction science. The main focus of our team’s research topic, under supervision of prof. Hesam Dehghani, was to characterise the structure of chromatin in preimplantation bovine embryo. I used to culture bovine embryo following IVM and IVF and to perform further genetic engineering and molecular techniques.
In 2010, I initiated my Ph.D in biotechnology at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad-Iran, under supervision of prof. Hesam Dehghani. The objective of my PhD thesis was to produce transgenic chick primordial germ cells for recombinant protein production purposes.
In vitro maintenance of cPGCs, their genetic manipulation, and cloning and validation of CXCR4 promoter, led me to become interested in embryonic and cancer stem cells biology, where similar molecular networks are involved in the maintenance of stemness & metastasis. We proposed that behaviour of cancer stem cells at site directed migration phase could be due to the function of a signalling axis composed of Nanog, NF-kB, and CXCR4.
Now, to continue my carrier in biology, I have realised that all basic and biological perspectives and experimental data will become more useful when are translated from bench to bedside. Thus, I have recently (in 2017) joined the ERA Chair team as a research fellow of translational genomics and personalised medicine under the supervision of Professor Alireza Fazeli.