Samira Kiani () is an Associate Professor in the department of Pathology of

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is a medical school of the University of Pittsburgh, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The School of Medicine, also known as Pitt Med, encompasses both a medical program, offering the doctor of ...

and Pittsburgh Liver Research Center. Formerly, she was a Health Systems Engineer at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. Her work combines Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (

CRISPR CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...

) with synthetic biology. She is a 2019 AAAS Leshner Fellow.

Early life and education

Kiani is from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. She earned her medical degree at the

Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) (, ''Danushgah-e 'lum Pezeshki-ye Tehran'') is the largest and most highly ranked medical university of Iran. In September 2008, Iran's Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education, Lankarani ...

. She completed a thesis on the molecular mechanisms of tissue injury. She joined the

Freeman Hospital The Freeman Hospital is an 800-bed tertiary referral centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The hospital is managed by the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is a teaching hospital for Newcastle University. History The Fre ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, where she was trained in general medicine. She joined the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, working as a postdoctoral researcher in

synthetic biology Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary field of science that focuses on living systems and organisms. It applies engineering principles to develop new biological parts, devices, and systems or to redesign existing systems found in nat ...

at MIT Synthetic Biology Center. She has acted as an advisor for the

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team. She collaborated with George Church and Ron Weiss to advance

technology. They developed a

based a modular transcriptional repression architecture that can be used to create functional cascaded circuits.

Research and career

Kiani joined

in 2016 and later moved to University of Pittsburgh in January 2020. She was awarded a

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

fellowship to investigate hearing loss caused by traumatic injuries. The loud noises of combat zones can result in a health threat to military personnel. Kiani works on safer gene therapies, including Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (

). The

Cas9 Cas9 (CRISPR associated protein 9, formerly called Cas5, Csn1, or Csx12) is a 160 dalton (unit), kilodalton protein which plays a vital role in the immunological defense of certain bacteria against DNA viruses and plasmids, and is heavily utili ...

protein works to cleave DNA, and can be targeted using a

gRNA Guide RNA (gRNA) or single guide RNA (sgRNA) is a short sequence of RNA that functions as a guide for the Cas9-endonuclease or other Cas-proteins that cut the double-stranded DNA and thereby can be used for gene editing. In bacteria and archaea, ...

. When the

reaches the target site it performs a double strand break, enabling gene disruption or editing. The Kiani lab looks to control where and when this gene disruption occurs. She has investigated whether

could be used to restore

hearing loss Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spo ...

after

acoustic trauma Acoustic trauma is the sustainment of an injury to the eardrum as a result of a very loud noise. Its scope usually covers loud noises with a short duration, such as an explosion, gunshot or a burst of loud shouting. Quieter sounds that are concen ...

and

aminoglycoside Aminoglycoside is a medicinal and bacteriologic category of traditional Gram-negative antibacterial medications that inhibit protein synthesis and contain as a portion of the molecule an amino-modified glycoside (sugar). The term can also refer ...

. She working on the optimisation of

CRISPR gene editing CRISPR gene editing (; pronounced like "crisper"; an abbreviation for "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats") is a genetic engineering technique in molecular biology by which the genomes of living organisms may be modified. ...

using RNA pol II. She has discussed her work on the Future Tech podcast. Her research is also supported by two grants from National Institute of Health, the most recent one being $2,600,000 from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

. The proposal looks to develop a human liver-on-a-chip using

Public engagement

In 2019 Kiani was announced as a Leshner Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

. She is working with Cody Sheehy to create a documentary entitled ''The Human Game.'' Kiani serves as the co-producer on the project, which looks to create a deeper discussion between the public and scientists about CRISPR technologies. In addition, together with Cody Sheehy, they are promoting a public engagement initiative called Tomorrow.Life aimed at increasing participation of broader stakeholders in decisions about future of science through collaborative visual story telling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiani, Samira American people of Iranian descent Iranian medical researchers Iranian women academics Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Arizona State University faculty Tehran University of Medical Sciences alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Iranian women scientists 21st-century Iranian scientists 21st-century Iranian women scientists