Biography

Dr. Kahkeshan Hijazi received her Bachelor’s degree in Bioinformatics from Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad, Pakistan in 2006. In 2009, she was awarded the J. William Fulbright Doctoral Award from the United States Educational Foundation (USEFP), Pakistan. She received her Master’s degree and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Boston University, Massachusetts, USA in 2014. Her research during her PhD was focused on developing predictors of tobacco-induced airway epithelial cell damage and the risk for having or developing tobacco-associated lung disease in humans at the Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) under the supervision of Dr. Avrum Spira. Prior to joining LUMS she served at the Research Center for Modeling and Simulation, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad as Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics. Dr. Hijazi’s expertise in Bioinformatics gives her great experience in the application of techniques from computer science and statistics to identify and understand patterns in the ever-more complex datasets produced by genome-wide profiling technologies. Her long terms goals are to apply post-genomic technologies and computational tools for translational research into human disease and to train graduate students who can apply these tools in a clinical setting.