Lab Members

(In the order of joining the lab)

Current Lab Members


Saba Valadkhan
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry
Case Western Reserve University
10900 Euclid Avenue
Wood W210a
Cleveland, OH 44106
Office phone: (216) 368 1068
Lab phone: (216) 368 5045
Saba Valadkhan was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. She attended medical school at the Iran University of Medical Sciences from 1989 to 1996 and in 1993 placed fourth in the country in the nationwide Basic Sciences Medical Board Exam. She moved to the United States in 1996 to attend graduate school at Columbia University, New York. There she studied the role of small nuclear RNAs in the human spliceosome under the supervision of Prof. James Manley. While at Columbia University she received awards for both teaching and research. Her thesis was recognized with a Harold Weintraub award from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. In 2004 she joined the RNA Center in Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, as an assistant professor and was named a Searle Scholar the same year. In 2005, she was selected by the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) as the recepient of the 2004 Young Scientist Award grand prize. Saba became a founding member of the Rosalind Franklin Society in 2006.

Achievements and Publications

  • See publications
  • Organized the 2010 Regional RNA Meeting of the MidWest (RRM) with David Rueda
  • Co-chair for the 2009 Regioal RNA Meeting of the MidWest (RRM) with David Rueda
  • Nsoroma Award from Cleveland Chapter of the National Technical Association (2006)
  • Saba Valadkhan selected as one of the top 10 "innovative scientists in the nation whose ideas could be the basis for next-generation companies," by Red Herring Magazine
  • 2004 AAAS Young Scientist Grand Prize (American Association for Advancement of Science)
  • Searle Scholar lab
Bing Zhang
Graduate Student
Lab member since December 2007
Wood W210b
Phone:(216) 368 5045
Bing Zhang obtained his Bachelor's degree from Shandong University (Jinan, China) in 2007, majoring in Biotechnology. He attended CWRU for graduate study in Fall 2007 and joined Valadkhan lab as a graduate student majoring in Biochemistry in Jan 2008. Bing works on the function and mechanism of large non-coding RNAs in mammalian cells.

Achievements and Publications

  • Jaladat Y, Zhang B, Mohammadi A, Valadkhan, S. (2011) Splicing of an intervening sequence by protein-free human snRNAs. RNA Biology 8:3. View PDF. Leave a question/comment.
  • Choose Ohio First (COF) Scholarship, 2011 and 2012
Lalith Gunawardane
Postdoctoral Scientist
Lab member since June 2009
Wood W210b
Phone:(216) 368 5045
Lalith was born and raised in Sri Lanka. He finished his PhD in Dr. Haru Siomi's lab in University of Tokushima, working on the RNA-protein interactions involving repeat-associated siRNAs (rasiRNAs) especially interactions with AGO3 and their functional significance. His work led to a first author publication in Science (Gunawardane et al., 2007). He joined Valadkhan lab in June 2009 and has been working on the RNA-protein interactions involving mammalian long non-coding RNAs.

Achievements and Publications

  • Valadkhan S., Gunawardane L.S. Role of small nuclear RNAs in eukaryotic gene expression. Essays in Biochemistry. In press.
Hiroto Kambara
Postdoctoral Scientist
Lab member since September 2012
Wood W210b
Phone:(216) 368 5045
Hiroto was born and raised in Japan. He earned his Ph.D at Osaka University working on virology research, in particular, Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Flavivirus. During his research on HCV, he was fascinated by a functional RNA, which regulates virus replication. His main field of interest now is the functional non-coding RNAs that are associated with human diseases.

Achievements and Publications

  • Click here for a complete list of publications
  • Japan Scholarship Foundation, Scholarship for University Students
  • Ph.D. with honors, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
  • The Uehara Memorial Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • Kanae Foundation for the Promotion of Medical Science, Grant for foreign study
Mengdi Liu
Graduate Student
Lab member since February 2013
Wood W210b
Phone:(216) 368 5045
Mengdi was born in central China, and obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Nanjing Agricultural University in 2012. She came to CWRU in Fall 2012 and began her graduate study here, majored in Biochemistry. She joined Dr. Valadkhan lab in Feb 2013 and is very interested in long non-coding RNA and cancers.




Former Lab Members


Xin (Cindy) Chen
Undergraduate Scientist
Member from 2009 - 2012
Xin was a member of Valadkhan lab since her freshman year and participated in many lab projects. She became a Capstone research student in the lab during her senior year.
Farshad Niazi
Informatics Researcher and Data Analyst
Lab member from September 2008 to summer 2012
W 129, 10900 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH, 44106
Lab: (216) 386 1068
Cell: (858) 692 7753
View Farshad Niazi's LinkedIn profileView my profile
Farshad Niazi was born and raised in Iran. He obtained his bachelor's degree from National University of Iran in software engineering in the second millenium. He believes in computing above all and is still waiting for the real computer revolution to happen. He migrated to the US early in the third millenium to pursue the development of a unified theory in the field of computational biology using his beloved Linux machines. Farshad was responsible for getting computers to answer all computaional biology questions the other team members can think of. He left the lab in Summer 2012 for a position in the Cleveland Clinic's Genome Institute.

Achievements and Publications

  • Niazi F, Valadkhan S. (2012) "Computational analysis of functional long noncoding RNAs reveals lack of peptide-coding capacity and parallels with 3 ′ UTRs" RNA. View PDF. Leave a question/comment
Mahshid Malakootian
Visiting graduate student
August 2011 - July 2012
Mahshid Malakootian was born and raised in Iran. She obtained her bachelor from University of Tehran in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Pursuing her educational goals, she further expanded her knowledge and technique of the field with a Master in Molecular Genetics at Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran. In her thesis, she evaluated one of the self-renewal markers,Nucleostemin, in human brain tumors, the idea of which stemmed from cancer stem cell theory. Successful work of her thesis illustrated the upregulation of the marker in the higher grades of brain tumors versus lower grade tumors. In the PhD entrance exam, she ranked first among all the applicants who were accepted to the PhD program in Molecular Genetics at Tarbiat Modares University. She is working on her PhD thesis with an interest in long noncoding RNAs. Working as an exchange/visitor student at Valadkhan's lab, she worked on a linc-noncoding RNA's role in cancer.

Achievements and Publications

Aaron Kim
Undergraduate Research Assistant
January 2008 - 2011
Aaron Kim was born in Topeka, Kansas, but lived in S. Korea for thirteen years. At age 16, he came to the U.S. and went to a high school in Corvallis, Oregon. He is currently an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University majoring Biochemistry and minoring Japanese. He joined Valadkhan lab in Spring of 2007 until his graduation in 2011.

Achievements and Publications

Caroline Lee
Graduate Student
May 2006 - September 2007 (undergraduate)
September 2007 - 2011 (graduated with a M.S. degree)
Caroline was born in State College, PA, but lived and schooled in Seoul, S. Korea until she turned 15. She lived in Seattle, WA before she came to Cleveland, where she obtained her Bachelor's degree from Case Western Reserve University, majoring in Biochemistry. She joined Valadkhan lab in Summer of 2006 as an undergraduate and continued on as a graduate student. Caroline works on defining the differences between human and yeast splicing machinery. Comparison of the catalytic ability of protein-free human and yeast snRNAs has begun to provide clues on the sites and base-pairing interactions that significantly affect their function. Caroline was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa Research Grant for this project in December 2006, and in April 2009 she became the recipient of a Silber fellowship.

Achievements and Publications

  • Lee C, Jaladat Y, Mohammadi A, Sharifi A, Geisler S, Valadkhan S. (2010) Metal Binding and Substrate Positioning by Evolutionarily Invariant U6 Sequences in Catalytically Active Protein-free SnRNAs. Rna 16.11:2226-238. View PDF. Leave a question/comment.
  • Silber Fellowship (2009)
  • Phi Beta Kappa Research Grant (2006)
Armin Sharifi
Research Assistant
August 2006-July 2007
Armin obtained his B.A. degree from NEOCOM in Ohio and being interested in research, joined Valadkhan Lab in August 2006. He worked on characterization of a minimal splicing system and developed the basic kinetic framework for its function.

Achievements and Publications

  • Lee C, Jaladat Y, Mohammadi A, Sharifi A, Geisler S, Valadkhan S. (2010) Metal Binding and Substrate Positioning by Evolutionarily Invariant U6 Sequences in Catalytically Active Protein-free SnRNAs. RNA 16.11:2226-238. View PDF. Leave a question/comment.
Justin Pruttivarasin
Undergraduate Research Assistant
November 2007 - 2009
Justin Pruttivarasin was born in Glendale, California, but lived in Thailand for twelve years. He is currently an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Justin works on the cellular function of large non-protein-coding RNAs and also helps other lab members by making polyacrylamide gels and preparing solutions for laboratory experiments.

Achievements and Publications

Mastooreh Chamanian
Research Assistant
September 2006-May 2007
Mastooreh Chamanian was born and raised in Iran. She obtained a B.Sc. degree from the National University of Iran (Shahid Beheshti) in marine biology. She joined Valadkhan Lab in September 2006 and was involved in a project related to modulation of splicing decisions in mammalian cells.

Achievements and Publications

Fereshteh Jahaniani Kenari
Postdoctoral Scientist
November 2005 - 2008
Fereshteh Jahaniani Kenari obtained her Pharm.D. from Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Tehran, Iran) in 1999 and her PhD in Pharmacology from Iran University of Medical Science (Tehran, Iran) in 2005. She joined Valadkhan Lab in Oct 2005 as a research associate. Fereshteh initiated the study of large non-coding RNAs in Valadkhan lab and has made important discoveries about the role of this mysterious class of RNAs in higher eukaryotes. Her work has shown that large RNAs can be master regulators of cellular fate and differentiation, and has provided clues to the underlying principles that govern the function of this important and novel class of cellular regulators.

Achievements and Publications

Afshin Bidari
Research Associate
November 2004 - February 2007
Afshin was born and raised in Iran. He obtained an M.D. degree from the National University of Iran (Shahid Beheshti), and is currently in his second year of residency in internal medicine in the Case Medical Center/University Hospitals. Afshin is involved in a research project in Valadkhan Lab on the catalytic mechanism of a newly developed minimal splicing system.

Achievements and Publications

Catherine Tran
Research Assistant
August 2004 - June 2005
Catherine Tran was a research assistant in the lab and helped shape the lab and get it going. We were happy to have her and wish her luck in her career!

Achievements and Publications

Nasrulridza (Nash) Yusuf
Laboratory Assistant
June 2004 to Jan. 2007
Nasrulridza (Nash) Yusuf grew up in Sarawak, Malaysia, which is located in a tropical island of Borneo before he was offered a scholarship to study in Case Western Reserve University. He finished his studies majoring in Systems and Control Engineering with concentration in Signal Processing and Communication and minor in Sociology. While in Valadkhan Lab, Nash’s responsibilities included general laboratory tasks such as preparing solutions, mediums and polyacrylamide gels for experiments in the lab.

Achievements and Publications

Afshin Mohammadi
Research Associate
Afshin obtained his M.D. from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, in Shiraz, where the famous wine takes its name from, in Iran. He joined the Valadkhan lab in November 2004. His main research interest is defining the role of spliceosomal RNAs in the splicing reaction, in particular, if two of these RNAs, U6 and U2, can perform the splicing reaction without the help of proteins. Afshin’s recent data indicates that these RNAs can perform both steps of splicing, and thus, eukaryotic splicing machines might in fact be RNA-based enzymes.

Achievements and Publications

  • Jaladat Y, Zhang B, Mohammadi A, Valadkhan, S. (2011) Splicing of an intervening sequence by protein-free human snRNAs. RNA Biology 8:3. View PDF. Leave a question/comment.
Sarah Geisler
Research Assistant
May 2004- June 2007
Growing up in Canfield, OH and Brownsburg, IN, Sarah Geisler joined the Valadkhan Lab in the Spring of 2004 as a part-time research associate. After she graduated from Case Western Reserve University with majors in Chemistry and Art History and minor in Anthropology, she started working full time in the Valadkhan Lab. While in Valadkhan lab, she worked on characterizing the proposed spliceosomal active site within the complex of U6 and U2 snRNAs. Her research was awarded a Presidential Research Initiative Grant from Case Western.

Achievements and Publications

  • Valadkhan S, Mohammadi A, Jaladat Y, Geisler S. (2009) Protein-free small nuclear RNAs catalyze a two-step splicing reaction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106: 11901-11906. and supplementary data. View PDF. Leave a question/comment.
  • Presidential Research Initiative Grant (CWRU, 2007)