Azad Alizada

Originally from Baku, Azerbaijan, I earned a BSc (Hons) in Cellular and Molecular Biology and an MSc in Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. My master’s research in Michael D. Wilson’s lab examined cross-species inflammatory responses in aortic endothelial cells from mice, bovines, and humans, revealing key gene-regulatory networks relevant to cardiovascular disease. Pursuing my PhD in Medical Science at the University of Cambridge in Greg Hannon’s lab (2020-2024), I investigated gene regulation in ovarian germ cells across metazoans, revealing a conserved master regulator of ovarian germ cell development behind piRNA pathway and transposable element suppression in animal germ cells. Now, as a postdoctoral researcher in Paul Riley's group at Oxford, I am applying comparative genomics approaches to heart development, aiming to identify the cellular and gene-regulatory mechanisms that govern conserved and species-specific developmental events during heart formation.