Advisor: Maria Chikina
About Rezwan
I got my master’s in biomedical engineering and medical informatics from Amir Kabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique), working on building an efficient regression model to predict complex diseases only based on binary SNP information. I started my PhD at University of Pittsburgh working on multimodal models combining genetic information and brain imaging datasets to predict Alzheimer’s disease. I then moved to the CPCB program to get a deeper and more specialized understanding of how genetic variants can cause diseases or generally affect phenotypic traits. I’m now trying to understand the molecular mechanisms of TF-DNA interactions by making simple interpretable models to explain the predictions of strong deep learning models. I’m also interested in population genetics and evolutionary genetics and studying how genetic variants can differentiate between populations and even species during evolution. I’m originally from Kurdistan, Iran and I love “kalanah o doxawa,” which is a delicious traditional Kurdish snack. I enjoy cooking, hiking, rafting and playing with my cats. I also love playing any kind of board games more than video games!