Samira Asgari, Ph.D. was born and raised in Iran. She obtained her Ph.D. in human genomics of infectious disease from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2012. In 2017, she moved to Boston for her postdoctoral training in human statistical and population genomics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She started her research group at Icahn School of medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City in 2022. Her research focuses on understanding the human genetic basis of infection and immunity. Some of the questions the Dr. Asgari lab asks include:

- What are the human genetic variants underlying susceptibility and resistance to specific pathogens?

- What are the molecular mechanisms connecting these variants to cellular functions and immune responses? and

- How do differences in population history and demography play into susceptibility and resistance to specific pathogens?

To answer these questions, they use a combination of statistical, functional, and population genomics methods.