Dr. Amir Ali Abbasi

Dr. Amir Ali Abbasi

Designation: Professor

National Centre for BioInformatics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Email addressabbasiam@qau.edu.pk

Office Phone: +92-051 9064-4109

Current Position: Visiting Scientist, PIFI Fellow, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), at the Beijing Institute of Genomics and China National Center for Bioinformation (https://www.cncb.ac.cn/?lang=en)

PhD: Philipps University Marburg, Germany
M.Phil: Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad
M.Sc: Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad (President and Chancellor Gold-Medalist)

Professor of Bioinformatics (Comparative Genomics)

Education

I completed my Secondary (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificates (HSSC) in the Science group from The Federal Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (FBISE),Islamabad. I pursued my Bachelor’s education in Biological Sciences at IMCB H-9, Islamabad, with the degree awarded by Punjab University, Pakistan. I obtained Masters degrees (M.Sc and M.Phil: 1999-2003) in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from the Department of Biological Sciences at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. During my academic tenure, I earned recognitions for academic excellence (M.Sc 1999-2001; President and Chancellor Gold Medals), securing the first position across the faculty of Biology and the entire Faculty of Natural Sciences. My M.Phil thesis research, supervised by Prof. Dr. Wasim Ahmad (2001-2003), titled “Linkage Studies of Hearing Impairment Loci in Pakistani Kindreds,” led to my first scientific publication: Dissertation link.

Professional Journey

After completing my academic milestones, I commenced my teaching career at Hazara University, Pakistan (2003-2004). Subsequently, I secured a scholarship funded by HEC Pakistan and DAAD Germany, which facilitated my Ph.D. studies at the Center for Human Genetics, Philipps-Universitt Marburg, under the supervision of Prof. Karl-Heinz Grzeschik (2005-2008). My doctoral research focused on exploring the non-coding cis-regulatory architecture of the human/mammalian Gli3 gene using comparative genomics, transgenic zebrafish/mice models, and in vitro assays in human cell lines. Dissertation link

Upon completing my Ph.D., I joined Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad as an Assistant Professor in 2008 at the National Center for Bioinformatics. Over the years, I progressed to the positions of Associate Professor (2015) and Full Professor (2021), leading a dynamic research group focused on functional genomics, molecular phylogenetics, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), and evolutionary genomic medicine. Noteworthy is the establishment of Pakistan’s first Zebrafish facility, aimed at functional genomic assays on human non-coding cis regulatory elements. This facility also serves as a training hub for M.Phil and Ph.D. level scholars in various zebrafish husbandry and breeding techniques. Additionally, the facility is equipped with basic instrumentation relevant to generating transgenic zebrafish embryos and monitoring the reporter gene expression (GFP) under the cis-regulation of human developmental enhancers. My research endeavors have yielded numerous publications in prestigious international journals (the majority as corresponding author) and have successfully supervised both Ph.D. and M.Phil. students. Furthermore, I have secured multiple National and International research grants and established collaborations with various esteemed research groups such as Prof. Axel Visel from DOE Joint Genome Institute; Prof. Neil H. Shubin from the University of Chicago; Prof. Yasuhiko Kawakami from the University of Minnesota, Prof. Yiming Bao from the Beijing Institute of Genomics, and Dr. Muhammad Ali Nawaz from Qatar University.

Other Links:

Database PAHG: https://www.pahgncb.com : http://pahg.qau.edu.pk/

The National Genomics Data Center (NGDC): https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/?lang=en

Forebrain enhancers (UCSC Genome Browser; Public track hubs): https://bit.ly/4kQ7rWU

GitHub: https://github.com/abbasiam77

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amir_Abbasi3

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t7JMIOEAAAAJ&hl=en

BHBD Alliance: http://bhbd-alliance.org/

Research Interest's:-

  Bioinformatics: Comparative and Functional Genomics

Total Publications:-

  1.  Azhar, R., Malik, M. F., Arif, R., Khokhar, M. W., Abbasi, Y. M., Batool, F., Jalalzai, M. H., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). PAHG: the database of human multi-gene familiesBMC Genomic Data, 26(1), 74. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-025-01361-y
  2. Azhar, R., Malik, M. F., Arif, R., Khokhar, M. W., Abbasi, Y. M., Batool, F., Jalalzai, M. H., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). Correction: PAHG: the database of human multi-gene familiesBMC Genomic Data, 26(1), 91. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-025-01386-3
  3. Raza, R. Z., Nazir, F. & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). Genetic Foundations of Human Brain Evolution: A Study of IRX3-Associated Human Accelerated Enhancer and the P422L Mutation. Evolutionary Biology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-025-09654-x
  4. Batool, F., Shireen, H., Malik, M. F., Abrar, M., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). The combinatorial binding syntax of transcription factors in forebrain-specific enhancers. Biology Open, 14, bio.061751R1. DOI: 10.1242/bio.061751

  5. Shireen, H., Batool, F., Khatoon, H., Parveen, N., Sehar, N.U., Noor U.S., Hussain, I., Ali, S., Abbasi, A. APredicting genome-wide tissue-specific enhancers via combinatorial transcription factor genomic occupancy analysis. FEBS Letters (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.15030
  6. Mughal, K.A., Khan, A., Sarwar, A., Mahmood, R., & Abbasi, A. AComparative protein structural analyses of ?-synuclein linked pathogenic variants reveal the role of N-terminally located critical region in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis. Biologia (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-024-01713-6
  7. Jabeen, M., Shoukat, S., Shireen, H., Bao, Y., Khan, A., & Abbasi, A. A., (2024).Unraveling the genetic variations underlying virulence disparities among SARS-CoV-2 strains across global regions: insights from Pakistan. Virology journal, 21(1), 55.
  8. Abrar, M., Ali, S., Hussain, I., Khatoon, H., Batool, F., Ghazanfar, S., Corcoran, D., Kawakami, Y., && Abbasi, A.A.(2024).Cis-regulatory control of mammalian Trps1 gene expression. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution, Volume342, Issue2, March 2024, Pages 85-100
  9. Ali, S., Abrar, M., Hussain, I., Batool, F., Raza, R. Z., Khatoon, H., Zoia, M., Visel, A., Shubin, N. H., Osterwalder, M., && Abbasi, A.A.(2023). Identification of ancestral gnathostome Gli3 enhancers with activity in mammals. Development, Growth & Differentiation, 66(1), 75�88.
  10. Hizran Khatoon, Rabail Zehra Raza, Shoaib Saleem, Fatima Batool, Saba Arshad, Muhammad Abrar, Shahid Ali, Irfan Hussain, Neil H. Shubin & Amir Ali Abbasi (2023). Evolutionary relevance of single nucleotide variants within the forebrain exclusive human accelerated enhancer regions. Mol and Cell Biol 24, 13.
  11. Lina Ma, Dong Zou, Lin Liu, Huma Shireen, Amir A. Abbasi, Alex Bateman, Jingfa Xiao, Wenming Zhao, Yiming Bao, Zhang Zhang. Database Commons: A Catalog of Worldwide Biological Databases. Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics. Volume 21, Issue 5, Pages 1054�1058, 2022.
  12. Batool, F., Pervaiz, N., Khalid, Q. & & Abbasi, A.A.(2021). Evolution of Human Multigene Familieshttps://doi.org/10.1002/9780470015902.a0029116.
  13. Hussain, I., Zehra, R., Ali, S., Abrar, M &Abbasi, A. A. (2021). Molecular signatures of selection on the human GLI3 associated central nervous system specific enhancers. Development Genes and Evolution. 2021 Mar;231(1-2):21-32.
  14. Raza R. Z., Ma, L., Zhang, Z., Bao, Y., Abbasi ,A. A., (2021) Selection trends on nasal-associated SNP variants across human populationsMeta Gene, 28, 100872
  15. Zou1, D., Mehmood, F., Ali, S., Ali, A., Saleem, S., Hussain, I., Abbasi, A. A., Ma, L……., Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center, China National Center for Bioinformation in 2021.Nucleic Acids Research, 49(DI), D18�D28
  16. Shuhui Song., Cuiping Li., Lu Kang., Dongmei Tian.,�.., Bing Zhang., Hua Chen., Yungui Yang., Amir Ali Abbasi Mingkun Li., Yongbiao Xue., Yiming Bao., (2021).Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Pakistan. Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.24.21255875
  17. Abbas Khan, Tauqir Zia, Muhammad Suleman, Taimoor Khan, Syed Shujait Ali, Amir Ali Abbasi, Anwar Mohammad, Dong?Qing Wei. 2021. Higher infectivity of the SARS?CoV?2 new variants is associated with K417N/T, E484K, and N501Y mutants: An insight from structural data. J Cell Physiol. 2021;1�13.
  18. Pervaiz, N., Kang, H., Bao, Y., Abbasi, A. AMolecular evolutionary analysis of human primary microcephaly genesBMC Ecol Evo 21, 76 (2021).
  19. Ali, S., Arif, I., Iqbal, I., Hussain., I., Abrar., M., Khan, R. K., Shubin., N., & Abbasi, A.A. (2020).Comparative genomic analysis of human GLI2 locus using slowly evolving fish revealed the ancestral gnathostome set of early developmental enhancers. Developmental Dynamics. Volume 250, Issue 5 p. 669-683
  20. Zhang, Z., Ma, L.,….Abbasi, A.A., … & Gao, F. (2020). Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center in 2020. Nucleic Acids Research, 48(D1), D24-D33
  21. Hussain, I., Pervaiz, N., Khan, A., Saleem, S., Shireen, H., Wei, D-Q., Labrie, V., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A (2020). Evolutionary and structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 specific evasion of host immunity. Genes Immun 21, 409�419.
  22. Nawaz, M.S., Asghar, R., Pervaiz, N., Ali, S., Hussain, Irfan., Peiqi, Xing., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2020) Molecular evolutionary and structural analysis of human UCHL1 gene demonstrates the relevant role of intragenic epistasis in Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disordersBMC Evolutionary Biology, 130 (2020).
  23. Wang, G., Yin, H., Li, B.,Abbasi, A.A., � & Zhang, Z. (2019). Characterization and identification of long non-coding RNAs based on feature relationship. Bioinformatics doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/327882
  24. Pervaiz, N., Shakeel, N., Qasim, A., Zehra, R., Anwar, S., Rana, N., Xue,Y., Zhang, Z., Bao,Y., & Abbasi, A.AEvolutionary history of the human multigene families reveals widespread gene duplications throughout the history of animals. BMC Evolutionary Biology (2019) 19:128.
  25. Zhang, Z., Zhao, W., Xiao, J., Bao, Y., Wang, F., Abbasi, A.A., … & Tang, B. Database Resources of the BIG Data Center in 2019.Nucleic Acids Research. Volume 47, Issue D1, Pages D8�D14
  26. Ma, L., Cao, J., Liu, L., Li, Z., Shireen, H., Pervaiz, N., Batool, F., Raza, R. Z., Zou, D., Bao, Y., Abbasi, A. A., & Zhang, Z. (2019). Community curation and expert curation of human long noncoding RNAs with LncRNAWiki and LncBook. Current Protocols in Bioinformatics 67(1):82
  27. Seemab, S., Pervaiz, N., Zehra, R., Anwar, S.,Yiming Bao & Abbasi, A.AMolecular evolutionary and structural analysis of familial exudative vitreoretinopathy associated FZD4 gene. (2019) 19:72. BMC Evolutionary Biology 19, 72 (2019).
  28. Rabail Zehra, Amir Ali Abbasi (2018). Homo sapiens-Specific Binding Site Variants within Brain Exclusive Enhancers Are Subject to Accelerated Divergence across Human Population. Genome Biology and Evolution, 10 (3), 956-966.
  29. Naz, R., Tahir, S., & Abbasi, A. A. (2017). An insight into the evolutionary history of human MHC paralogonMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution110, 1-6.
  30. Ali, S., Amina, B., Anwar, S., Minhas, R., Parveen, N., Nawaz, U., … & Abbasi, A. A. (2016). Genomic features of human limb specific enhancers. Genomics108(3), 143-150.
  31. Hafeez, M., Shabbir, M., Altaf, F., and Abbasi, A.A. (2016). Phylogenomic analysis reveals ancient segmental duplications in the human genome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Volume 94, Part A, Pages 95-100
  32. Pervaiz, N., & Abbasi, A. A. (2016). Molecular evolution of WDR62, a gene that regulates neocorticogenesis. Meta gene9, 1-9.
  33. Siddiqui, I. J., Pervaiz, N., & Abbasi, A. A. (2016). The Parkinson Disease gene SNCA: Evolutionary and structural insights with pathological implicationScientific reports , 6.
  34. Anwar, S., Minhas, R., Ali, S., Lambert, N., Kawakami, Y., Elgar, G., … & Abbasi, A. A. (2015). Identification and functional characterization of novel transcriptional enhancers involved in regulating human GLI3 expression during early developmentDevelopment, growth & differentiation. 57(8), 570-580.
  35. Minhas, R., Pauls, S., Ali, S., Doglio, L., Khan, M.R., Elgar, G., and Abbasi, A.A. (2015). Cis-regulatory control of human GLI2 expression in the developing neural tube and limb bud. Developmental Dynamics. 244, 681-692.
  36. Yousaf, A., Raza, M.S., and Abbasi, A.A. (2015). The evolution of bony vertebrate enhancers at odds with their coding sequence landscape. Genome Biology and Evolution. evv146.
  37. Abbasi, A. A. (2015). Diversification of four human HOX gene clusters by step-wise evolution rather than ancient whole-genome duplications. Development genes and evolution225(6), 353-357.
  38. Ajmal, W., Khan, H., Abbasi, A.A., (2014). Phylogenetic investigation of human FGFR-bearing paralogons favors piecemeal duplication theory of vertebrate genome evolution. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 81, 49-60.
  39. Ambreen S , Khalil F , Abbasi A.A. (2014). Integrating large-scale phylogenetic datasets to dissect the ancient evolutionary history of vertebrate genomeMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 78: 1-13.
  40. Abbasi, A. A., Minhas, R., Schmidt, A., Koch, S. and Grzeschik, K.-H. (2013), Cis-regulatory underpinnings of human GLI3 expression in embryonic craniofacial structures and internal organs. Development, Growth & Differentiation. 55(8):699-709,
  41. Parveen, N., Masood, A., Iftikhar, N., Minhas, B., Minhas, R., Nawaz, U., & Abbasi, A.A. (2013). Comparative genomics using teleost fish helps to systematically identify target gene bodies of functionally defined human enhancers. BMC Genomics, 14(1), 122.
  42. Asrar Z ,HaqF, Abbasi A.A. (2013)Fourfold paralogy regions on human HOX-bearing chromosomes: Role of ancient segmental duplications in the evolution of vertebrate genome, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 66(3), Pages 737�747.
  43. Abbasi A.A, Hanif H (2012). Phylogenetic history of paralogous gene quartets on human chromosomes 1, 2, 8 and 20 provides no evidence in favor of the vertebrate octoploidy hypothesis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 63:922-927.
  44. Abbasi A.A., (2011) Evolution of vertebrate appendicular structures: Insight from genetic and palaeontological data. Developmental Dynamics, 240:1005-1066. (Special issue on limb development).
  45. Abbasi A.A., (2011) Molecular evolution of HR, a gene that regulates the postnatal cycle of the hair follicle. Sci. Rep. 1, 32;
  46. Abbasi A.A, Paparidis Z, Malik S, Bangs F, Schmidt A, Koch S, Lopez-Rios J, Grzeschik KH (2010): Human Intronic Enhancers Control Distinct Sub-domain of Gli3 Expression during Mouse CNS and Limb Development. BMC Developmental Biology. 2010, 10:44.
  47. Abbasi A.A., (2010) Piecemeal or big bangs: correlating the vertebrate evolution with proposed models of gene expansion events. Nat Rev Genet 11(2):166.
  48. Abbasi A.A., (2010) Unraveling ancient segmental duplication events in human genome by phylogenetic analysis of multigene families residing on HOX cluster paralogons. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution., 57: 836-848.
  49. Abbasi, A. A., Paparidis, Z., Malik, S. M., Weirich, C., & Grzeschik, K. H. (2009). 13- P048 Expression patterning in CNS and limb from fish to mammals by GLI3-intronic enhancers. Mechanisms of Development, 126, S209.
  50. Abbasi A.A, Goode DK, Amir S, Grzeschik KH (2009). Evolution and functional diversification of the GLI family of transcription factors in vertebrates. Evolutionary Bioinformatics 5: 5-13.
  51. Abbasi A.A., (2008) Are we degenerate tetraploids? More genomes, New facts. Biology Direct 3:50.
  52. Paparidis Z, Abbasi A.A., Malik S, Goode DK, Callaway H, Elgar G, deGraaff E, Lopez-Rios J, Zeller R, Grzeschik KH (2007)Ultraconserved non-coding sequence element controls a subset of spatiotemporal GLI3 expression. Dev Growth Differ 49:543-53
  53. Abbasi A.A., Paparidis Z, Malik S, Goode DK, Callaway H, Elgar G, Grzeschik KH (2007) Human GLI3 intragenic conserved non-coding sequences are tissue-specific enhancers. PLoS ONE 2:e366
  54. Abbasi A.A, Grzeschik KH (2007) An insight into the phylogenetic history of HOX linked gene families in vertebrates. BMC Evol Biol 7:239.
  55. Malik S, Abbasi A.A, Ansar M, Ahmad W, Koch MC, Grzeschik KH (2006) Genetic heterogeneity of synpolydactyly: a novel locus SPD3 maps to chromosome 14q11.2-q12. Clin Genet 69:518-24
  56. Wajid M, Abbasi A.A, Ansar M, Pham TL, Yan K, Haque S, Ahmad W, Leal SM (2003) DFNB39, a recessive form of sensorineural hearing impairment, maps to chromosome 7q11.22-21.12. Eur J Hum Genet 11:812-5

Last Five Years Publications

  1.  Azhar, R., Malik, M. F., Arif, R., Khokhar, M. W., Abbasi, Y. M., Batool, F., Jalalzai, M. H., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). PAHG: the database of human multi-gene familiesBMC Genomic Data, 26(1), 74. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-025-01361-y
  2. Azhar, R., Malik, M. F., Arif, R., Khokhar, M. W., Abbasi, Y. M., Batool, F., Jalalzai, M. H., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). Correction: PAHG: the database of human multi-gene familiesBMC Genomic Data, 26(1), 91. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-025-01386-3
  3. Raza, R.Z., Nazir, F. & Abbasi, A.A. Genetic Foundations of Human Brain Evolution: A Study of IRX3-Associated Human Accelerated Enhancer and the P422L Mutation. Evol Biol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-025-09654-x
  4. Batool, F., Shireen, H., Malik, M. F., Abrar, M., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). The combinatorial binding syntax of transcription factors in forebrain-specific enhancers. Biology Open, 14, bio.061751R1. DOI: 10.1242/bio.061751
  5. Shireen, H., Batool, F., Khatoon, H., Parveen, N., Sehar, N.U., Noor U.S., Hussain, I., Ali, S., Abbasi, A. APredicting genome-wide tissue-specific enhancers via combinatorial transcription factor genomic occupancy analysis. FEBS Letters (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/1873-3468.15030
  6. Mughal, K.A., Khan, A., Sarwar, A., Mahmood, R., & Abbasi, A. AComparative protein structural analyses of ?-synuclein linked pathogenic variants reveal the role of N-terminally located critical region in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis. Biologia (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-024-01713-6
  7. Jabeen, M., Shoukat, S., Shireen, H., Bao, Y., Khan, A., & Abbasi, A. A., (2024).Unraveling the genetic variations underlying virulence disparities among SARS-CoV-2 strains across global regions: insights from Pakistan. Virology journal, 21(1), 55.
  8. Abrar, M., Ali, S., Hussain, I., Khatoon, H., Batool, F., Ghazanfar, S., Corcoran, D., Kawakami, Y., && Abbasi, A.A.(2024).Cis-regulatory control of mammalian Trps1 gene expression. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution, Volume342, Issue2, March 2024, Pages 85-100
  9. Ali, S., Abrar, M., Hussain, I., Batool, F., Raza, R. Z., Khatoon, H., Zoia, M., Visel, A., Shubin, N. H., Osterwalder, M., && Abbasi, A.A.(2023). Identification of ancestral gnathostome Gli3 enhancers with activity in mammals. Development, Growth & Differentiation, 66(1), 7588.
  10. Hizran Khatoon, Rabail Zehra Raza, Shoaib Saleem, Fatima Batool, Saba Arshad, Muhammad Abrar, Shahid Ali, Irfan Hussain, Neil H. Shubin & Amir Ali Abbasi (2023). Evolutionary relevance of single nucleotide variants within the forebrain exclusive human accelerated enhancer regions. Mol and Cell Biol 24, 13.
  11. Lina Ma, Dong Zou, Lin Liu, Huma Shireen, Amir A. Abbasi, Alex Bateman, Jingfa Xiao, Wenming Zhao, Yiming Bao, Zhang Zhang. Database Commons: A Catalog of Worldwide Biological Databases. Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics. Volume 21, Issue 5, Pages 10541058, 2022.
  12. Batool, F., Pervaiz, N., Khalid, Q. & & Abbasi, A.A.(2021). Evolution of Human Multigene Families. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470015902.a0029116.
  13. Hussain, I., Zehra, R., Ali, S., Abrar, M &Abbasi, A. A. (2021). Molecular signatures of selection on the human GLI3 associated central nervous system specific enhancers. Development Genes and Evolution. 2021 Mar;231(1-2):21-32.
  14. Raza R. Z., Ma, L., Zhang, Z., Bao, Y., Abbasi ,A. A., (2021) Selection trends on nasal-associated SNP variants across human populations. Meta Gene, 28, 100872
  15. Zou1, D., Mehmood, F., Ali, S., Ali, A., Saleem, S., Hussain, I., Abbasi, A. A., Ma, L……., Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center, China National Center for Bioinformation in 2021.Nucleic Acids Research, 49(DI), D18D28
  16. Shuhui Song., Cuiping Li., Lu Kang., Dongmei Tian.,.., Bing Zhang., Hua Chen., Yungui Yang., Amir Ali Abbasi Mingkun Li., Yongbiao Xue., Yiming Bao., (2021).Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Pakistan. Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.24.21255875
  17. Abbas Khan, Tauqir Zia, Muhammad Suleman, Taimoor Khan, Syed Shujait Ali, Amir Ali Abbasi, Anwar Mohammad, Dong?Qing Wei. 2021. Higher infectivity of the SARS?CoV?2 new variants is associated with K417N/T, E484K, and N501Y mutants: An insight from structural data. J Cell Physiol. 2021;113.
  18. Pervaiz, N., Kang, H., Bao, Y., Abbasi, A. AMolecular evolutionary analysis of human primary microcephaly genes. BMC Ecol Evo 21, 76 (2021).
  19. Ali, S., Arif, I., Iqbal, I., Hussain., I., Abrar., M., Khan, R. K., Shubin., N., & Abbasi, A.A. (2020).Comparative genomic analysis of human GLI2 locus using slowly evolving fish revealed the ancestral gnathostome set of early developmental enhancers. Developmental Dynamics. Volume 250, Issue 5 p. 669-683
  20. Zhang, Z., Ma, L.,….Abbasi, A.A., … & Gao, F. (2020). Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center in 2020. Nucleic Acids Research, 48(D1), D24-D33
  21. Hussain, I., Pervaiz, N., Khan, A., Saleem, S., Shireen, H., Wei, D-Q., Labrie, V., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A (2020). Evolutionary and structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 specific evasion of host immunity. Genes Immun 21, 409419.
  22. Nawaz, M.S., Asghar, R., Pervaiz, N., Ali, S., Hussain, Irfan., Peiqi, Xing., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2020) Molecular evolutionary and structural analysis of human UCHL1 gene demonstrates the relevant role of intragenic epistasis in Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 130 (2020).
  23. Wang, G., Yin, H., Li, B.,Abbasi, A.A.,  & Zhang, Z. (2019). Characterization and identification of long non-coding RNAs based on feature relationship. Bioinformatics doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/327882
  24. Pervaiz, N., Shakeel, N., Qasim, A., Zehra, R., Anwar, S., Rana, N., Xue,Y., Zhang, Z., Bao,Y., & Abbasi, A.A. Evolutionary history of the human multigene families reveals widespread gene duplications throughout the history of animalsBMC Evolutionary Biology (2019) 19:128.
  25. Zhang, Z., Zhao, W., Xiao, J., Bao, Y., Wang, F., Abbasi, A.A., … & Tang, B. Database Resources of the BIG Data Center in 2019.Nucleic Acids Research. Volume 47, Issue D1, Pages D8D14
  26. Ma, L., Cao, J., Liu, L., Li, Z., Shireen, H., Pervaiz, N., Batool, F., Raza, R. Z., Zou, D., Bao, Y., Abbasi, A. A., & Zhang, Z. (2019). Community curation and expert curation of human long noncoding RNAs with LncRNAWiki and LncBook. Current Protocols in Bioinformatics 67(1):82
  27. Seemab, S., Pervaiz, N., Zehra, R., Anwar, S.,Yiming Bao & Abbasi, A.AMolecular evolutionary and structural analysis of familial exudative vitreoretinopathy associated FZD4 gene. (2019) 19:72. BMC Evolutionary Biology 19, 72 (2019).

Subjectwise Publications

Gene Regulation and Vertebrate Evolutionary Development (Evo Devo) 
  1.  Batool, F., Shireen, H., Malik, M. F., Abrar, M., & Abbasi, A. A. The combinatorial binding syntax of transcription factors in forebrain-specific enhancers. Biology Open, 14, bio.061751R1 (2025). DOI: 10.1242/bio.061751
  2. Shireen, H., Batool, F., Khatoon, H., Parveen, N., Sehar, N.U., Noor U.S., Hussain, I., Ali, S., Abbasi, A. A. Predicting genome-wide tissue-specific enhancers via combinatorial transcription factor genomic occupancy analysis. FEBS Letters (2024). DOI
  3. Abrar, M., Ali, S., Hussain, I., Khatoon, H., Batool, F., Ghazanfar, S., Corcoran, D., Kawakami, Y., & Abbasi, A.A. Cis-regulatory control of mammalian Trps1 gene expression. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution, 342(2), 85-100 (2024).
  4. Ali, S., Abrar, M., Hussain, I., Batool, F., Raza, R. Z., Khatoon, H., Zoia, M., Visel, A., Shubin, N. H., Osterwalder, M., & Abbasi, A.A. Identification of ancestral gnathostome Gli3 enhancers with activity in mammals. Development, Growth & Differentiation, 66(1), 75–88 (2023).
  5. Ali, S., Arif, I., Iqbal, I., Hussain, I., Abrar, M., Khan, R. K., Shubin, N., & Abbasi, A.A. Comparative genomic analysis of human GLI2 locus using slowly evolving fish revealed the ancestral gnathostome set of early developmental enhancers. Developmental Dynamics, 250(5), 669-683 (2020).
  6. Wang, G., Yin, H., Li, B., Abbasi, A.A., & Zhang, Z. Characterization and identification of long non-coding RNAs based on feature relationship. Bioinformatics. DOI
  7. Ali, S., Amina, B., Anwar, S., Minhas, R., Parveen, N., Nawaz, U., … & Abbasi, A. A. Genomic features of human limb specific enhancers. Genomics, 108(3), 143-150 (2016).
  8. Anwar, S., Minhas, R., Ali, S., Lambert, N., Kawakami, Y., Elgar, G., … & Abbasi, A. A. Identification and functional characterization of novel transcriptional enhancers involved in regulating human GLI3 expression during early development. Development, Growth & Differentiation, 57(8), 570-580 (2015).
  9. Minhas, R., Pauls, S., Ali, S., Doglio, L., Khan, M.R., Elgar, G., and Abbasi, A.A. Cis-regulatory control of human GLI2 expression in the developing neural tube and limb bud. Developmental Dynamics, 244, 681-692 (2015).
  10. Yousaf, A., Raza, M.S., and Abbasi, A.A. The evolution of bony vertebrate enhancers at odds with their coding sequence landscape. Genome Biology and Evolution, evv146 (2015).
  11. Abbasi, A. A., Minhas, R., Schmidt, A., Koch, S. and Grzeschik, K.-H. Cis-regulatory underpinnings of human GLI3 expression in embryonic craniofacial structures and internal organs. Development, Growth & Differentiation, 55(8), 699-709 (2013).
  12. Parveen, N., Masood, A., Iftikhar, N., Minhas, B., Minhas, R., Nawaz, U., & Abbasi, A.A. Comparative genomics using teleost fish helps to systematically identify target gene bodies of functionally defined human enhancers. BMC Genomics, 14(1), 122 (2013).
  13. Abbasi A.A. Evolution of vertebrate appendicular structures: Insight from genetic and palaeontological data. Developmental Dynamics, 240, 1005-1066 (2011).
  14. Abbasi A.A, Paparidis Z, Malik S, Bangs F, Schmidt A, Koch S, Lopez-Rios J, Grzeschik KH Human Intronic Enhancers Control Distinct Sub-domain of Gli3 Expression during Mouse CNS and Limb Development. BMC Developmental Biology, 10:44 (2010).
  15. Abbasi, A. A., Paparidis, Z., Malik, S. M., Weirich, C., & Grzeschik, K. H. Expression patterning in CNS and limb from fish to mammals by GLI3-intronic enhancers. Mechanisms of Development, 126, S209 (2009).
  16. Paparidis Z, Abbasi A.A., Malik S, Goode DK, Callaway H, Elgar G, deGraaff E, Lopez-Rios J, Zeller R, Grzeschik KH Ultraconserved non-coding sequence element controls a subset of spatiotemporal GLI3 expression. Development Growth & Differentiation, 49, 543-53 (2007).
  17. Abbasi A.A., Paparidis Z, Malik S, Goode DK, Callaway H, Elgar G, Grzeschik KH Human GLI3 intragenic conserved non-coding sequences are tissue-specific enhancers. PLOS ONE, 2:e366 (2007).
Vertebrate Gene/Genome Evolution
1.
Batool, F., Pervaiz, N., Khalid, Q. & Abbasi, A.A. Evolution of Human Multigene Families (2021). DOI
2.
Pervaiz, N., Shakeel, N., Qasim, A., Zehra, R., Anwar, S., Rana, N., Xue, Y., Zhang, Z., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A.A. Evolutionary history of the human multigene families reveals widespread gene duplications throughout the history of animals. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 19:128 (2019).
3.
Naz, R., Tahir, S., & Abbasi, A. A. An insight into the evolutionary history of human MHC paralogon. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 110, 1-6 (2017).
4.
Hafeez, M., Shabbir, M., Altaf, F., and Abbasi, A.A. Phylogenomic analysis reveals ancient segmental duplications in the human genome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 94(A), 95-100 (2016).
5.
Abbasi, A. A. Diversification of four human HOX gene clusters by step-wise evolution rather than ancient whole-genome duplications. Development Genes and Evolution, 225(6), 353-357 (2015).
6.
Ajmal, W., Khan, H., Abbasi, A.A. Phylogenetic investigation of human FGFR-bearing paralogons favors piecemeal duplication theory of vertebrate genome evolution. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 81, 49-60 (2014).
7.
Ambreen S, Khalil F, Abbasi A.A. Integrating large-scale phylogenetic datasets to dissect the ancient evolutionary history of vertebrate genome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 78, 1-13 (2014).
8.
Asrar Z, Haq F, Abbasi A.A. Fourfold paralogy regions on human HOX-bearing chromosomes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 66(3), 737-747 (2013).
9.
Abbasi A.A, Hanif H Phylogenetic history of paralogous gene quartets on human chromosomes 1, 2, 8 and 20. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 63, 922-927 (2012).
10.
Abbasi A.A. Piecemeal or big bangs: correlating vertebrate evolution with proposed models of gene expansion events. Nature Reviews Genetics, 11(2), 166 (2010).
11.
Abbasi A.A. Unraveling ancient segmental duplication events in human genome by phylogenetic analysis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 57, 836-848 (2010).
12.
Abbasi A.A, Goode DK, Amir S, Grzeschik KH Evolution and functional diversification of the GLI family of transcription factors in vertebrates. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 5, 5-13 (2009).
13.
Abbasi A.A. Are we degenerate tetraploids? More genomes, new facts. Biology Direct, 3:50 (2008).
14.
Abbasi A.A, Grzeschik KH An insight into the phylogenetic history of HOX linked gene families in vertebrates. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 7:239 (2007).
Molecular/Genomic Basis of Human Evolution
1.
Raza, R.Z., Nazir, F. & Abbasi, A.A. Genetic Foundations of Human Brain Evolution: A Study of IRX3-Associated Human Accelerated Enhancer and the P422L Mutation. Evol Biol (2025). DOI
2.
Hizran Khatoon, Rabail Zehra Raza, Shoaib Saleem, Fatima Batool, Saba Arshad, Muhammad Abrar, Shahid Ali, Irfan Hussain, Neil H. Shubin & Amir Ali Abbasi Evolutionary relevance of single nucleotide variants within the forebrain exclusive human accelerated enhancer regions. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 24, 13 (2023).
3.
Hussain, I., Zehra, R., Ali, S., Abrar, M & Abbasi, A. A. Molecular signatures of selection on the human GLI3 associated central nervous system specific enhancers. Development Genes and Evolution, 231(1-2), 21-32 (2021).
4.
Raza R. Z., Ma, L., Zhang, Z., Bao, Y., Abbasi, A. A. Selection trends on nasal-associated SNP variants across human populations. Meta Gene, 28, 100872 (2021).
5.
Pervaiz, N., Kang, H., Bao, Y., Abbasi, A. A. Molecular evolutionary analysis of human primary microcephaly genes. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 21, 76 (2021).
6.
Rabail Zehra, Amir Ali Abbasi Homo sapiens-Specific Binding Site Variants within Brain Exclusive Enhancers Are Subject to Accelerated Divergence across Human Population. Genome Biology and Evolution, 10(3), 956-966 (2018).
7.
Pervaiz, N., & Abbasi, A. A. Molecular evolution of WDR62, a gene that regulates neocorticogenesis. Meta Gene, 9, 1-9 (2016).
8.
Abbasi A.A. Molecular evolution of HR, a gene that regulates the postnatal cycle of the hair follicle. Scientific Reports, 1, 32 (2011).
Databases
  1. Azhar, R., Malik, M. F., Arif, R., Khokhar, M. W., Abbasi, Y. M., Batool, F., Jalalzai, M. H., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). PAHG: the database of human multi-gene familiesBMC Genomic Data, 26(1), 74. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-025-01361-y
  2. Azhar, R., Malik, M. F., Arif, R., Khokhar, M. W., Abbasi, Y. M., Batool, F., Jalalzai, M. H., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. (2025). Correction: PAHG: the database of human multi-gene familiesBMC Genomic Data, 26(1), 91. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-025-01386-3
  3. Lina Ma, Dong Zou, Lin Liu, Huma Shireen, Amir A. Abbasi, Alex Bateman, Jingfa Xiao, Wenming Zhao, Yiming Bao, Zhang Zhang. Database Commons: A Catalog of Worldwide Biological Databases. Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics, 21(5), 1054-1058 (2022).
  4. Zou, D., Mehmood, F., Ali, S., Ali, A., Saleem, S., Hussain, I., Abbasi, A. A., Ma, L. Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center. Nucleic Acids Research, 49(D1), D18-D28 (2021).
  5. Zhang, Z., Ma, L., Abbasi, A.A., … & Gao, F. Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center in 2020. Nucleic Acids Research, 48(D1), D24-D33 (2020).
  6. Zhang, Z., Zhao, W., Xiao, J., Bao, Y., Wang, F., Abbasi, A.A., … & Tang, B. Database Resources of the BIG Data Center in 2019. Nucleic Acids Research, 47(D1), D8-D14 (2019).
  7. Ma, L., Cao, J., Liu, L., Li, Z., Shireen, H., Pervaiz, N., Batool, F., Raza, R. Z., Zou, D., Bao, Y., Abbasi, A. A., & Zhang, Z. Community curation and expert curation of human long noncoding RNAs with LncRNAWiki and LncBook. Current Protocols in Bioinformatics, 67(1):82 (2019).
Molecular Evolutionary Basis of Human Infectious Diseases / Darwinian Medicine
1.
Jabeen, M., Shoukat, S., Shireen, H., Bao, Y., Khan, A., & Abbasi, A. A. Unraveling the genetic variations underlying virulence disparities among SARS-CoV-2 strains across global regions: insights from Pakistan. Virology Journal, 21(1), 55 (2024).
2.
Shuhui Song, Cuiping Li, Lu Kang, Dongmei Tian, Bing Zhang, Hua Chen, Yungui Yang, Amir Ali Abbasi, Mingkun Li, Yongbiao Xue, Yiming Bao. Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Pakistan. Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics (2021). DOI
3.
Abbas Khan, Tauqir Zia, Muhammad Suleman, Taimoor Khan, Syed Shujait Ali, Amir Ali Abbasi, Anwar Mohammad, Dong-Qing Wei. Higher infectivity of the SARS-CoV-2 new variants is associated with K417N/T, E484K, and N501Y mutants. Journal of Cellular Physiology (2021).
4.
Hussain, I., Pervaiz, N., Khan, A., Saleem, S., Shireen, H., Wei, D-Q., Labrie, V., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. Evolutionary and structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 specific evasion of host immunity. Genes & Immunity, 21, 409-419 (2020).
Molecular Evolutionary Basis of Neurological Disorders / Darwinian Medicine
1.
Mughal, K.A., Khan, A., Sarwar, A., Mahmood, R., & Abbasi, A. A. Comparative protein structural analyses of α-synuclein linked pathogenic variants reveal the role of N-terminally located critical region in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis. Biologia (2024). DOI
2.
Nawaz, M.S., Asghar, R., Pervaiz, N., Ali, S., Hussain, Irfan., Peiqi, Xing., Bao, Y., & Abbasi, A. A. Molecular evolutionary and structural analysis of human UCHL1 gene. BMC Evolutionary Biology (2020).
3.
Seemab, S., Pervaiz, N., Zehra, R., Anwar, S., Yiming Bao & Abbasi, A.A. Molecular evolutionary and structural analysis of familial exudative vitreoretinopathy associated FZD4 gene. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 19, 72 (2019).
4.
Siddiqui, I. J., Pervaiz, N., & Abbasi, A. A. The Parkinson Disease gene SNCA: Evolutionary and structural insights with pathological implication. Scientific Reports, 6 (2016).
Human Diseases Genetics
1.
Malik S, Abbasi A.A, Ansar M, Ahmad W, Koch MC, Grzeschik KH Genetic heterogeneity of synpolydactyly: a novel locus SPD3 maps to chromosome 14q11.2-q12. Clinical Genetics, 69, 518-24 (2006).
2.
Wajid M, Abbasi A.A, Ansar M, Pham TL, Yan K, Haque S, Ahmad W, Leal SM DFNB39, a recessive form of sensorineural hearing impairment, maps to chromosome 7q11.22-21.12. European Journal of Human Genetics, 11, 812-815 (2003).

Research Supervision: PhD Thesis Supervised

S.No Researcher’s Name Thesis Title Year
1 Fatima Batool Elucidating Fore-brain Specific Human Enhancers Through Heterotypic Interactions Among Transcriptional Factors 2025
2 Huma Shireen Prediction of Human Forebrain Specific Cis-regulatory Modules by Employing Transcription Factors Cooperativity 2025
3 Rashid Minhas Cis-acting Control of Human Developmental Regulator GLI2 2016
4 Nazia Parveen Comparative Studies of Gene Regulatory Networks Involved in Brain Development 2016
5 Rabail Zehra Brain Enhancers and their Role in Distinguishing Human CNS from Non-Human Primates 2018
6 Nashaiman Pervaiz Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Human MCPH Genes and its Implication in Human Brain Size and Intelligence 2019
7 Shahid Ali Elucidation of Cis-acting Regulatory Control for Human GLI Paralogs 2019
8 Irfan Hussain Roles of Vertebrate Gli3 Gene in Brain Development and Evolution 2021
9 Hizran Khatoon Elucidating the Events of Transcription Factor Binding in Human Brain Enhancers 2023
10 Muhammad Abrar Human TRSP1 Gene: Endogenous Expression and Cis-acting Regulatory Control 2024

Research Supervision: M.Phil Thesis Supervised

S.No Researcher’s Name Thesis Title Year
1Bushra Fazal MinhasHuman CNE-Enhancers and Target Gene Association Through Comparative Syntenic Analysis Across Vertebrates2011
2Hafsa HanifTesting the Validity of Vertebrate Octaploidy Hypothesis by Phylogenetic Re-scrutiny of Proposed Paralogons on Hsa 20(q11-q13), 8(q12-q24), 1(p36-p34) and 2p24/6(q21-q23)2011
3Faiza RiazCharacterization of Non-coding Sequence Elements in Tetraodon nigroviridis and Gasterosteus aculeatus through whole genome sequence Comparison2011
4Muhammad AzharSequence Evolutionary Patterns of the Functionally Defined Human Enhancer Regions2011
5Nazia ParveenDefining the Cis-regulatory Networks of Human genes through Comparative Genomic Analysis of Functionally defined CNE-enhancers across tetrapod-teleost Lineages2012
6Anam NazComputationally Predicted Map of Replication Initiation Sites in Human Genome2012
7Ayesha MasoodFunctionally defined Human CNE-enhancers are Associated with their Concerned Genes through Orthology and Paralogy mapping2012
8Farhan HaqMolecular Phylogenetic History of Subset of Multi-gene Families with Members Residing on HOX Cluster Paralogons2012
9Zainab AsrarTesting the Validity of WGD Hypothesis in the Vertebrates by Phylogenetic Analysis of Gene Families with at least three members Residing on HSA2, HSA7, HSA12, and HSA172012
10Nouman IftikharEvolutionary Conserved Syntenic Association of Vertebrate Enhancers and their relevant genes, assists in defining Gene Regulatory Networks in Human Genome2012
11Aysha YousafUnraveling Evolutionary Patterns of Functionally defined CNEs employing Molecular Phylogenetics2013
12Sohail RazaPrimate – Specific Impact of Adoptive Evolution of HR Protein2013
13Bibi AmeenaDeciphering the Regulatory code for Limb Specific CNE Enhancers across Vertebrates by Implying Comparative Genomics Approach2013
14Noor AfshanEvolutionary Conserved Cardiac Patterns in the Sequences of Functionally Defined Enhancers2013
15Sadaf AmbreenMolecular Phylogenetic Analysis of Multi-gene Families with Members Residing on HOX – cluster Paralogues2013
16Faiqa KhalilTesting the Validity of WGD hypothesis in Vertebrates through Phylogenetic Analysis of Multi-gene Families Residing on Human HOX cluster Paralogons2014
17Hiba KhanExamining the Authenticity of ‘One–to–Four Model’ in Vertebrates through Phylogenetic Analysis of the Proposed Paralogon; Hsa4, Hsa5, Hsa8 and Hsa102014
18Shahid AliElucidating Cis-Acting Regulatory Elements in a Transcriptional Mediator Gene: GLI32014
19Wajya AjmalEvidence of Ancient Segmental Duplications during Vertebrate Evolution2014
20Nashaiman PervaizReconstructing the Evolutionary History of Human WDR62 Gene and its Implication in Human Brain Size and Intelligence2014
21Madiha ShabbirInvestigating Hypothesis of Vertebrate Genome Duplication through Phylogenetic Analysis of Human Gene Families Residing on FGFR bearing Paralogons2015
22Syed Aleem HaiderAging and Longevity in Humans: Functional Annotation of Single Nucleotide Variants in 1000 Genomes2015
23Noor us SeharElucidating Heterotypic Co-operation of Transcription Factors During Human Forebrain Development2015
24Madiha HafeezTesting the Validity of Vertebrate Whole Genome Duplication Assumption through Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis2015
25Fouzia AltafInsight into Phylogenetic History of Multi-gene Families Residing on Human Paralogon Comprising Hsa 4, 5, 8 and 102015
26Anabia SohailMolecular Evolution of Mammalian Specific desmoglein Genes2015
27Irum Javed SiddiquiDeciphering Evolutionary and Structural Insights of alpha synuclein (SNCA), a Gene Associated with Familial Parkinson’s disease2015
28Waqas KhokarGraphical Insight into Evolutionary History of Paralogy Blocks Residing on Vertebrate Genome2015
29Amna FarooqChromosome wide Prediction of Tissue Specific Enhancers Employing Computational and Statistical Approaches2016
30Irum ArifIdentification of Putative Regulatory Circuit for Human Key Development Gene GLI22016
31Summaira YasmeenA computational Study to Predict Co-occurring Transcription Factors Binding Sites in Genomic non-Coding DNA of Interest2016
32Salma NoreenAnnotation of Human Forebrain Specific Cis-acting Gene Regulatory Networks through Comparative Genomic Analysis2016
33Sadaf TahirTesting the Validity of Vertebrate WGD Assumption by Scrutinizing Phylogenetic Histories of Multi-gene Families Residing on Human Paralogon Comprising Hsa 1,6,9, and 192016
34Rozeena ArifDynamic Framework for Comparative and Interactive Phylogenomic Analysis of Human Paralogy Blocks2016
35Roheena NazInvestigating the Polyploidy Hypothesis by Phylogenetic Analysis of Multi-gene Families on MHC Paralogon2016
36Ayesha IqbalIdentification of Cis-acting Regulatory Elements in Transcriptional Mediator Gene GLI22016
37Kanwer M. Zeshan YousafFunctional Analysis of Human Putative Forebrain Enhancer in Transgenic Zebrafish Assay2017
38Ayesha QasimInvestigating the Whole Genome Duplication Hypothesis in Vertebrates Through Phylogenomic Analysis of Human Paralogon 1, 2, 8 and 202017
39Nazia ShakeelPhylogenetic Investigation of Paralogy Blocks Residing on Human Chromosome 1, 2 8 and 202017
40Huma ShireenEmploying the Transcription Factors Co-operativity in Predicting the Human Forebrain Specific Enhancers2017
41Neenish RanaGenome-wide Mapping of Duplication on Human Paralogy Blocks to Infer Their Impact on Vertebrate Evolution2017
42Erum YasmeenCloning and Functional Analysis of Human GLI3 Specific Putative Enhancer Region2017
43Suman SeemabInvestigating the Whole Genome Duplications in Vertebrates2018
44Qanta KhalidWhole Genome Analysis of Segmentally Duplicated Regions Residing on Human Paralogy Blocks to Scrutinize their Impact on Vertebrate’s Origin2018
45Asfia ShahidPrediction of Forebrain Specific Super Enhancers in Human Genome2018
46Saima Ghulam NabiMolecular Evolutionary Basis for the Etiology of Parkinson’s disease2018
47Saba ArshadInvitro Validation of Human Forebrain Specific Transcription Factor Motifs2018
48Alia RafiqueEvolutionary and Structural underpinnings of Neurodegenerative Disease Associated Gene2018
49Aniza AzizImplementation of Phylogenetic features in Client-server Environment Using Multiple Developmental Platforms2018
50Raza MuhammadGLI3 Expression Profiling in Zebrafish by Whole Mount in situ Hybridization2019
51Sardar Syed Muhammad JunaidEvolutionary and Structural Analysis of Parkinson’s Disease Causing Proteins2019
52Farah NazirIdentifying Evolutionary Patterns on Brain Genes Associated with Enhancers2019
53Sidra YounasDevelopment of Heuristic Searches for Character-Based Methods of Phylogenetic Inference2019
54Mansoor KhanMolecular Phylogenetics of Human EPH Multigene Family2019
55Maria KhalidUnveiling of Polymorphism in STRs and SNPs Forensic Markers in Pakhtoon and Gilgit Baltistan Samples2019
56Muhammad Saqib NawazPhylogenetic and Evolutionary Insight into Parkinson Disease Causing Gene2019
57Ayesha MaqsoodMolecular Evolution and Structural Insight of CHCHD Gene Family Linked to Neurodegenerative Diseases2019
58Saher MusrratEvolutionary and Phylogenetic Analysis of Human Multigene Families Involved in AD2019
59Shoaib SaleemProtein Structure Prediction and Diseased Mutational Analysis of Human Developmentally Important GLI3 Gene2020
60Hadiqa YasmeenPhyloEdit: A Web-based interactive Visualization and Manipulation of Phylogenetic Trees2020
61Washaakh AhmadComputational Prediction of Human Limb Specific Enhancers Utilizing the Transcription Factors Cooperativity2020
62Hadia Haider AbbasiChromosome Wide Prediction of Human Limb Specific Cis- Regulatory Module Employing Computational and Statistical Approaches2020
63Raheela HabibComparative and Structure Analysis of Human-Octopus FZD4 Orthologs2020
64Itfa SafdarPrediction and Functional Analysis of Forebrain Specific Enhancers in Zebrafish2020
65Rida MahmoodInvestigating the phylogenetic and evolutionary aspects of Parkinson’s disease associated genes2021
66Amina SarwarProtein structural and mutational analysis of Parkinson’s disease associated human genes.2021
67Kashifa Akhtar MughalDeciphering the role of SNCA mutants by employing comparative genomics and proteomics approaches2022
68Momina JabeenEvolutionary and structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Macrodomains of Pakistan’s Isolates2022
69Shifa ShoukatComparative sequence analysis of SARS-CoV-2 pp1ab of Pakistan’s isolates2022
70Aiman KhanComparative structural modeling of mutants and protein-protein interactions of SNCA2022
71Arshiya QayyumRecruiting Transcription Factor Heterotypic cooperativity to design computational approach for chromosome-wide prediction of human limb-specific enhancers2022
72Ramsha AzharPhyloEasy: A python framework for phylogeny inference and its integration into the PAHG database2022
73Aleena MurtazaComparative analysis and population genetics of human TBX4 associated human limb-specific enhancer2022
74Atika khanFunctional investigation of human limb specific enhancer in Transgenic zebrafish assay2023
75Ayesha IkramDenovo genome assembly and annotation of Capra Falconeri (Markhor)2023
76Jaweria HafeezMolecular sequence evolutionary analyses of the EGLN1 gene in Capra falconeri (Markhor), a gene involved in high altitude adaptation.2023
77Muhammad Faizan MalikInteractive view of 220 human multigene families spread across human genome available at PAHG database2023
78Syed Nouman NasirGenomic variant analysis of SARS-CoV-2 macrodomain from globally sampled population of virus2023
79Areej Naveed AbbasiComparative and Structural Analysis of Parkinson’s disease Associated Human Proteins2024
80Sania MustafaComparative Sequence and Protein Structural Analysis of Parkinson’s Disease-Causing Genes2024
81Noor AfshanMolecular Evolution of EPAS1 Gene in Panthera Uncia2022
82Shahab AhmadEstimation of Genetic Diversity in Markhor Species in Pakistan2023
83Ijaz ul HaqPhylogenetic Human History of Multigene Families and Their Relevance to Vertebrate Genome Evolution2023
84Muhammad AwaisNA2023
85Aiza KhanNA2023
86Tehmeena AsgharNA2023

Research Supervision: M.Phil Currently Under Supervision

S.No Researcher’s Name Thesis Title Year
1 Muqadas NA Fall 2022
2 Hifsa NA Spring 2023
3 ABC NAn Spring 2023

Research Projects Completed

Sr. NoProject TitleSponsoring AgencyDuration
1Characterization of non-coding sequence elements in Tetraodon nigroviridis and Gasterosteus aculeatus through whole genome sequence comparisonsHigher Education Commission of Pakistan (No.20-2562/R&D/NRPU/HEC)2015 – 2019
2Elucidation of cis-acting gene regulatory network of human GLI gene paralogs by employing computational and functional approachesHigher Education Commission of Pakistan (No.20-2085/NRPU/R&D/HEC)2014 – 2018
3Estimation of Missing Values for Microarray DataHigher Education Commission of Pakistan (IPFP/HRD/HEC/2012/3544)2012 – 2013
4Identification of human GLI3 gene enhancer regions by reporter expression analysis in zebrafishHigher Education Commission of Pakistan (PM-IPFP/HRD/HEC/2010/1811)2010 – 2011
5The Global Health Big Data Sharing ProgramChinese Academy of Sciences (153F11KYSB20160008)2016 – 2022
6The Global Life Omics Data Sharing ProgramNational Key Research & Development Program of China (2016YFE0206600)2017 – 2022
7The Global Biodiversity and Health Big Data AllianceProfessional Association of the Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO-PA-2020-07)2020 – 2022
8The Open Biodiversity and Health Big Data ProgramThe International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS)2020 – 2022
9German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Equipment GrantFederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany (PKZ302969)2017 – 2021

Research Projects in Progress

Sr. NoProject TitlePrincipal InvestigatorSponsoring AgencyDuration
1Generation of Zebrafish Models for BCR-ABL-Induced Leukemogenesis and Development of fast real-time diagnostic assay for Pakistani populationPrincipal InvestigatorPakistan Science Foundation2022 – Continue
2Whole Genome Sequencing and Conservation Genomics of the Pakistani Markhor (Capra falconeri) PopulationPrincipal InvestigatorHEC / NRPU2022 – Continue
3Global Biodiversity and Health Big DataCo-Principal InvestigatorAlliance (Project No. ANSO-PA-2023-07)2023 – Continue

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