Biography: Dr. Ghanbari is a medical doctor and molecular epidemiologist. He currently works as Associate Professor and Principal Investigator at Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where he leads the Molecular & Systems Epidemiology research group. Dr. Ghanbari has a multidisciplinary background due to training and working in the clinic, epidemiology and molecular biology.
After graduation as MD, he worked for 5 at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran, where he was involved in research, clinic and managerial tasks. In September 2011, he moved to the Netherlands to start a PhD position at the department of Hematology in Erasmus MC, where he applied various molecular biology techniques in stem cell and microRNA fields. From December 2012 onwards, he moved to the department of Epidemiology to continue his multi-faceted PhD research on the role of microRNAs in age-related diseases. During PhD, he developed an innovative method to investigate the role of non-coding RNAs in complex traits by combining genomic data from population-based studies with molecular validation studies. From 2017, he decided to continue research as Postdoc and developed a new interdisciplinary niche “Molecular and Systems Epidemiology” at the Department of Epidemiology. After two years of intensively sharpening his scientific profile and gaining more professional maturity, he was promoted to Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator of the group in June 2019. His research focuses on the identification of genetic determinants and novel biomarkers for complex diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease). To this end, Dr. Ghanbari and his team integrate various large-scale omics data from epidemiological studies, apply advanced analytical methods, and conduct state-of-the-art molecular and cellular model studies. The multidisciplinary aspects of his research has allowed him to make a bridge between Department of Epidemiology and several basic science laboratories at Erasmus MC and establish a broad international network. He is now actively involved in several national and international consortia, in which he is collaborating in multi-center projects. The results of his research have been published in numerous high-impact journals in his field and presented at several (inter)national conferences. He has received several awards and grants for his scientific discoveries so far. In his position as the PI of group, in addition to research, he is a dedicated teacher in multiple courses offered by the Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences (NIHES) and coordinates ‘omics’ data in the population-based Rotterdam Study (>18,000 participants) and the Erasmus Rucphen Family study (>3,000 participants).