Shirin Moossavi

Postdoctoral Fellow

University of Calgary

Universal Scientific Education and Research Network

Biography

Shirin Moossavi is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering. Shirin obtained her Medical Doctorate from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran; her MSc in Genetic Manipulation and Molecular Biology from University of Sussex, UK; and PhD in Medical Microbiology from the University of Manitoba. She is the Early-Mid Career Ambassador of International Society of Microbial Ecology and the Founding Director of Microbiome and Microbial Ecology Interest Group at Universal Scientific Education and Research Network, .

Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship
CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship
Governor General’s Gold Medal
Distinguished Thesis Award
Emerging Leader Award

Interests

Gut Microbiome
Microbiome-based Diagnostics
Organ-on-Chip
Personalised Medicine

Education

PhD Medical Microbiology, 2020
University of Manitoba
MSc Genetic Manipulation and Molecular Cell Biology, 2010
University of Sussex
MD Medicine, 2008
Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Research

Infant microbiome

Infant microbiome development: an interkingdom perspective The effect of probiotics on preterm infant gut microbiome maturation Microbiome-based diagnostics

Method development for microbiome Analysis

1. Microbiome Meta-Analysis There is a growing need for knowledge synthesis about the role of microbiome in health and disease using meta-analysis as more and more microbiome studies become available. The current approaches to microbiome meta-analysis could be more accurately described as mega-analysis.

Rethinking the causal framework in microbiome research

The field of microbiome research has fundamentally changed our perception of the host-microbe interaction in maintaining health and predisposing or causing disease. While the majority of the research so far has focused on identifying association rather than elucidating causal mechanisms, the field has evolved rapidly to address these shortcomings.

Experimental evaluation of Priority Effect Hypothesis

Advisor: Dr Marie-Claire Arrieta, University of Calgary In collaboration with: Prof Jens Walter, University College Cork

Gut-microbiome-on-chip

Organ-on-chip is a novel technology harnessing advances in microengineering and fluid dynamics to reconstruct the physiological tissue microenvironment, including many features that cannot be achieved in conventional tissue culture (e.g. villi, differentiation of epithelial cell types, mucus secretion, peristalsis).