Nagham Farah, PhD, joined the Vaccarino lab as a postdoctoral associate in September to work on projects that explore the molecular mechanisms governing early neurogenesis and brain patterning in health and disease, using cortical organoid systems developed by the Vaccarino lab to investigate these processes.
Dr. Farah earned her PhD in Biomedical Science – Genetics and Developmental Biology – from the University of Connecticut studying the cerebellar development and the role of FOXP genes in the formation of cerebellar hemispheres. Before her doctoral studies, she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Damascus, Syria, and a Master of Science from Toulouse III University in France, where she studied the neuroglial switch during spinal cord development.
In addition to neurodevelopment, her work experience in biomedical research spans multiple fields, including muscle development and regeneration at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University in Melbourne, liver-targeted mitochondria transplantation, and the molecular basis of human craniofacial development in the labs of UCONN Health.
Dr. Farah’s research centers on decoding the intrinsic molecular programs that guide neuronal cell types in establishing positional identity and connectivity during brain development. She is particularly interested in addressing these fundamental questions using control and patient-derived patterned cortical organoids.