About Me

I am a biologist specialized in bioinformatics and cell biology, investigating the underlying mechanisms of human conditions and the environmental responses of organisms. After completing my postdoctoral research at Stanford University—where I employed RNA‑sequencing and protein arrays—I took a bioinformatics staff position at the University of Chicago, successfully leading four projects that resulted in peer‑reviewed publications. In the coming years, I plan to expand my bioinformatics research and integrate my computational skills directly into wet‑lab experiments.

Experience

• University of Chicago
   - Staff Scientist [2020 – 2025]

• Stanford University
   - Life Science Research Professional 3 [2018 – 2019]
   - Postdoctoral Scholar [2013 – 2018]

Education

• National University of Singapore (NUS)
   - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Publications

• Comparison of associations suggests mainly distinct pools of genetic risk factors contribute to cisplatin-induced hearing loss and hearing difficulty in the general population
  Shahbazi M, Wheeler HE, Zhang X, Frisina RD, Travis LB, Dolan ME. 2025. Front. Pharmacol. PMID: 40932864

• Comparison of GWAS results between de novo tinnitus and cancer treatment-related tinnitus suggests distinctive roles for genetic risk factors
  Shahbazi M, Wheeler HE, Zhang X, Frisina RD, Travis LB, Dolan ME. 2024. Sci Rep. PMID: 39543288

• Transcriptional response of Arabidopsis thaliana’s root-tip to spaceflight
  Shahbazi M, Rutter LA, Barker R. 2024. Plant Mol Biol. PMID: 38935184 [Link to the full free article]

• Comprehensive association analysis of speech recognition thresholds after cisplatin‐based chemotherapy in survivors of adult‐onset cancer
  Shahbazi M, Zhang X, Dinh PC, Sanchez VA, Trendowski MR, Shuey MM, Nguyen T; Regeneron Genetics Center; Feldman DR, Vaughn DJ, Fung C, Kollmannsberger C, Martin NE, Einhorn LH, Cox NJ, Frisina RD, Travis LB, Dolan ME. 2023. Cancer Med. PMID: 36097363

• Pharmacogenomics of cisplatin-induced neurotoxicities: Hearing loss, tinnitus, and peripheral sensory neuropathy
  Zhang X, Trendowski MR, Wilkinson E, Shahbazi M, Dinh PC, Shuey MM; Regeneron Genetics Center; Feldman DR, Hamilton RJ, Vaughn DJ, Fung C, Kollmannsberger C, Huddart R, Martin NE, Sanchez VA, Frisina RD, Einhorn LH, Cox NJ, Travis LB, Dolan ME. 2022. Cancer Med. PMID: 35322580

• The role of insulin as a key regulator of seeding, proliferation, and mRNA transcription of human pluripotent stem cells
  Shahbazi M, Cundiff P, Zhou W, Lee P, Patel A, D’Souza SL, Abbasi F, Quertermous T, Knowles JW.
  2019. Stem Cell Res Ther. PMID: 31358052

• Analysis of transcriptional variability in a large human iPSC library reveals genetic and non-genetic determinants of heterogeneity
  Carcamo-Orive I, Hoffman GE, Cundiff P, Beckmann ND, D’Souza SL, Knowles JW, Patel A, Papatsenko D, Abbasi F, Reaven GM, Whalen S, Lee P, Shahbazi M, Henrion MYR, Zhu K, Wang S, Roussos P, Schadt EE, Pandey G, Chang R, Quertermous T, Lemischka I.
  2016. Cell Stem Cell. PMID: 28017796

• Targeted transgene insertion into the AAVS1 locus driven by baculoviral vector-mediated zinc finger nuclease expression in human-induced pluripotent stem cells
  Tay FC, Tan WK, Goh SL, Ramachandra CJ, Lau CH, Zhu H, Chen C, Du S, Phang RZ, Shahbazi M, Fan W, Wang S. 2013. J Gene Med. PMID: 24105820

• Inhibitory effects of neural stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells on differentiation and function of monocyte-derived dendritic cells
  Shahbazi M, Kwang TW, Purwanti YI, Fan W, Wang S. 2013. J Neurol Sci. PMID: 23664653

• Enhancing immunostimulatory function of human embryonic stem cell-derived dendritic cells by CD1d overexpression
  Zeng J, Shahbazi M, Wu C, Toh HC, Wang S. 2012. J Immunol. PMID: 22407918

• Efficient recombinase-mediated cassette exchange at the AAVS1 locus in human embryonic stem cells using baculoviral vectors
  Ramachandra CJ, Shahbazi M, Kwang TW, Choudhury Y, Bak XY, Yang J, Wang S. 2011. Nucleic Acids Res. PMID: 21685448

Other contributions

• OSDR Chats with Dr Shahbazi on Arabidopsis Root Tips (Transcriptional Response of Arabidopsis Root Tips to Spaceflight)
  2024. [Link to the interview]

• Sensory transcriptomics: Transcriptomics as versatile on-site sensors during spaceflight, Moon, and Mars missions
  Shahbazi M, Barker R, Beheshti A, Sanders LM, Rutter LA. 2022. BPS Decadal Survey. [Link to the white paper]

• Novel role of NANOG in smooth muscle cell phenotypic modulation during aortic dissections
  Shahbazi M, Fischbein M. 2017. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. PMID: 28826598 [Editorial]

Code Sample

Code associated with PMID: 40932864

Skill Development

DataCamp:

• 2025 – 2026
  Intermediate SQL | Joining Data in SQL
• 2021 – 2022
  Intermediate Python | Biomedical Image Analysis in Python | Writing Efficient R Code | Experimental Design in R | Multiple and Logistic Regression in R | Supervised Learning in R: Classification
• 2018 – 2020
  Introduction to Shell | Intermediate R | Data Visualization with ggplot2 | Correlation and Regression in R | Exploratory Data Analysis in R