We advise you to start the project with consultation. Understanding your research goals, helps us to provide recommendations to suit your needs as well as to address practical questions and collaboratively plan and design your experiment. Please contact us at scf@mb.sci.am to discuss your project in detail!
Leadership
Dr. Arsen Arakelyan, Ph.D., DrSc, Bioinformatics and Data Science Team
Dr. Arsen Arakelyan is the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA and the Institute of Combined and Pharmacy at the Russian-Armenian University. He leads the Laboratory of Human Genomics and established the Bioinformatics Group in 2011, focusing on “-omics” bioinformatics of chronic diseases and cancers. His research expertise includes high-throughput sequencing data analysis, such as RNA-Seq, WGS, WES, single-cell RNA-Seq, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Dr. Arakelyan has contributed to numerous high-profile research projects in human genomics, personalized medicine, and population genetics. See PubMed.
Dr. Jonathan Schug, Ph.D., Bioinformatics and Data Science Team
Education – mathematics and computer science from University of Pennsylvania. Technical director of sequencing core facilities at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine from 2008 to 2022 and continues to consult for the NGS@PGSC. Has provided data analysis services for numerous high-profile publications involving ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, miRNA-Seq, RIP-Seq, WGBS, ATAC-Seq, single-cell RNA-Seq, scATAC-Seq, and many other sequencing techniques in a wide variety of research areas. See PubMed․
Dr. Ani Stepanyan, Ph.D., Laboratory Operations Team
Dr. Ani Stepanyan is a senior scientist at the Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA, specializing in molecular genetics and next-generation sequencing (NGS). Her research explores the genetic mechanisms of complex diseases and the impact of environmental factors-such as diet, radiation, and pollutants-on gene regulation, DNA methylation and damage. She has conducted collaborative research as a visiting researcher at the Palacký University, University of Pennsylvania and Rostock University. Dr. Stepanyan has experience in bisulfite sequencing, custom NGS panel development, whole exome sequencing (WES), and RNA-Seq. See PubMed.
Laboratory Operations Team
Narineh Kianian, Ph. D. student
A neuroscience graduate with expertise in molecular and cellular biology techniques, including Next-generation sequencing (NGS), immunohistochemistry, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), primer design, Western blotting, gene manipulation with Site-directed mutagenesis, and basic Python programming. Her experience spans electrophysiological recordings, and histopathological techniques in both clinical and research settings.
Dr. Gevorg Martirosyan, Ph.D., ClS
Education – Biologist (YSU), Medical Laboratory specialist (YMSU). Areas of expertise include laboratory genetics (wet lab), molecular laboratory routine workflow, clinical genetics interpretations. Researcher, Head of clinical molecular laboratory. Author of some papers.
Gisane Khachatryan, Ph. D. student
Gisane Khachatryan is currently a PhD student in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Russian-Armenian University. She holds her specialty degree in Bioengineering and Bioinformatics from the same institution.
Her PhD research focuses on “Molecular Genetic Risks Associated with Long-Duration Space Missions,” exploring how space-related stressors impact genomic stability and disease susceptibility. Gisane has advanced laboratory experience, ranging from nucleic acid extractions to Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing technologies, and basic knowledge of R programming for data analysis.
Arpine Minasyan, Ph.D. student
Arpine Minasyan is currently a PhD student and a senior laboratory assistant at the Laboratory of Human Genomics in IMB NAS RA since 2021. She has a Master’s (ISEC NAS RA) and a Bachelor’s( YSU) degree in cellular and molecular biology. Her PhD research focuses on “Molecular subtyping of chronic myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma with nanopore RNA sequencing through integration of publicly available short-read transcriptomic datasets and machine learning approaches”. Her laboratory experience includes Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing technologies, basic R programming and statistics, cell-based assays and techniques, cytotoxicity assays, and cellular viability testing.
Dr. Andranik Chavushyan, Ph.D.
Education – Biologist (YSU), Faculty of Physics (YSU). Areas of expertise include laboratory genetics, molecular laboratory routine workflow, clinical genetics interpretations, researcher.
Bioinformatics and Data Science Team
Siras Hakobyan, Ph. D. student
Siras Hakobyan is currently a Junior Researcher and PhD student in the Research Group of Bioinformatics at the Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA in Yerevan, Armenia. He received his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Bioinformatics from Yerevan State University. His PhD project focuses on pathway-centered analysis of high-throughput omics data, particularly examining pathway activity states in cancers based on pathway topology, gene expression, and somatic mutation data. This project is conducted in collaboration with Leipzig University. Since 2017, Siras has been engaged in genome bioinformatics, accumulating diverse expertise in the field.
Dr. Suren Davitavyan, Ph. D.
Education – Mathematical Biology and Bioinformatics from the Russian-Armenian University . Junior scientist at the Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA since 2019. Areas of expertise include big biological data analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, next-generation sequencing (NGS), cancer research, and genetics, Python/R/bash programming. Author of multiple publications in international scientific journals. See ResearchGate․
Yeva Bareghamyan Ph.D. student
Yeva Bareghamyan is currently a PhD student in Mathematical biology and Bioinformatics at the Russian-Armenian University. She has a Master’s degree in Biophysics and a Bachelor’s degree in Biophysics and Bioinformatics at Yerevan State University. Her PhD research focuses on “Whole genome and whole exome sequencing based analysis of diversity of genomic variants in Armenian population”. She has experience in genome bioinformatics and the analysis of genetic variation.
