Atefeh specialises in Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology
I received my PhD at 2016 from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland. During my PhD, I investigated the heterogeneity within cancer subtypes and using a pathway-based approach I developed a biomarker for an accurate classification of breast cancer into its molecular subtype. Moreover, I utilised a mathematical model to capture the temporal dynamics of gene regulatory network in normal development and disease progression. Through my proposed model, I was able to represent the trajectories of cells moving a pluripotent state to a specialised cell type. In the context of complex disease such as cancer, the model reflected the trajectories of cell-fate transitions in cancer progression.
I joined Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre-Queensland at the Translational Research Institute as a Postdoc in 2016, where I developed computational methodologies to investigate cancer plasticity programs such as the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and study the effect of key transcription factors in the aggressive type of Prostate Cancer.
I have recently joined Jess Mar group at AIBN to study the effect of gene expression variability in stem cell and aging using single-cell transcriptomics data.
Key Publications
Stylianou N, Lehman M L, Wang C, Taherian Fard A, Rockstroh A, Fazli L, Jovanovic L, Ward M, Sadowski M C, Kashyap A S, Buttyan R, Gleave M E, Westbrook T F, Williams E D, Gunter J H, Nelson C C & Hollier B G. A molecular portrait of epithelial–mesenchymal plasticity in prostate cancer associated with clinical outcome. (2018) Oncogene; doi.org/10.1038/s41388-018-0488-5
Taherian Fard A and Ragan M A. Modeling the attractor landscape of disease progression: a network-based approach. (2017) Frontiers in Genetics; doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2017.00048
Taherian Fard A, Srihari S, Mar J C and Ragan M A. Not just a colorful metaphor: Modeling the landscape of cellular development using Hopfield networks. (2016) npj Systems Biology and Applications; doi: 10.1038/npjsba.2016.1.
Taherian Fard A, Srihari S and Ragan M A. Breast cancer classification: linking molecular mechanisms to disease prognosis. (2014) Briefings in Bioinformatics; doi: 10.1093/bib/bbu020.
Taherian Fard A, Salman A, Bukhari H, Kazemi B. In silico comparative genome analysis of malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax chromosome 4. (2009) Parasitology Research, 104: 1361-1364.