Najib El-Sayed

Dr. Najib El-Sayed is an Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland, with a joint appointment in the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at UMIACS. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1993 in Molecular Parasitology and then trained as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of John Donelson at the University of Iowa. In 1998, he joined The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Maryland where he led the sequencing, annotation, and comparative and functional genomic analyses of several human pathogens. He has been at the University of Maryland since 2006. He currently directs the Next-Generation Sequencing Core at the University, as well as the Computational Biology, Bioinformatics and Genomics graduate concentration area of studies.
Dr. El-Sayed’s research program is focused on the study of the biology of parasitism and host-pathogen interactions using genomic and bioinformatics approaches with the ultimate goal of better understanding infection and survival mechanisms. These approaches include the development and application of molecular, computational and genomic tools. In the long term, his research will contribute to better diagnosis, prevention and therapeutics of parasite- and bacteria-caused diseases in humans, animals and plants. He has published over 60 research papers and serves on the editorial boards of BMC Genomics and PLoS One. He also serves on NIH’s Genomics, Computational Biology and Technology (GCAT) study section as well as on the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Genome Sequencing Centers for Infectious Diseases.
Publications
2008
2008. Sequence diversity and evolution of multigene families in Trypanosoma cruzi. Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 157
2008. Role of transposable elements in trypanosomatids. Microbes and InfectionMicrobes and Infection. 10
2007
2007. Schistosoma mansoni genome: Closing in on a final gene set. Experimental ParasitologyExperimental Parasitology. 117
2007. Microarray analysis of gene expression induced by sexual contact in Schistosoma mansoni. BMC GenomicsBMC Genomics. 8
2007. New Trypanosoma cruzi Repeated Element That Shows Site Specificity for Insertion. Eukaryotic CellEukaryotic Cell. 6
2007. Cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutase is an essential gene in procyclic form Trypanosoma brucei. Parasitology researchParasitology research. 100
2006
2006. Evolution of non-LTR retrotransposons in the trypanosomatid genomes: Leishmania major has lost the active elements. Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 145
2006. The Trypanosoma cruzi L1Tc and NARTc non-LTR retrotransposons show relative site specificity for insertion. Molecular biology and evolutionMolecular biology and evolution. 23
2006. Trypanosoma cruzi mitochondrial maxicircles display species- and strain-specific variation and a conserved element in the non-coding region. BMC GenomicsBMC Genomics. 7
2005
2005. Comparative Genomics of Trypanosomatid Parasitic Protozoa. ScienceScience. 309
2005. The genetic map and comparative analysis with the physical map of Trypanosoma brucei. Nucleic acids researchNucleic Acids Research. 33
2005. The genome sequence of Trypanosoma cruzi, etiologic agent of Chagas disease. ScienceScience. 309
2005. Transcriptional profiling of the hyperthermophilic methanarchaeon Methanococcus jannaschii in response to lethal heat and non‐lethal cold shock. Environmental MicrobiologyEnvironmental Microbiology. 7
2005. Promoter architecture and response to a positive regulator of archaeal transcription. Molecular MicrobiologyMolecular Microbiology. 56
2004
2004. Schistosoma mansoni genome project: an update. Parasitology InternationalParasitology International. 53
2004. Sequencing Strategies for Parasite Genomes. METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY-CLIFTON THEN TOTOWA-METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY-CLIFTON THEN TOTOWA-. 270
2004. The ingi and RIME non-LTR retrotransposons are not randomly distributed in the genome of Trypanosoma brucei. Molecular biology and evolutionMolecular biology and evolution. 21
2004. Advances in schistosome genomics. Trends in ParasitologyTrends in Parasitology. 20
2003
2003. The sequence and analysis of Trypanosoma brucei chromosome II. Nucleic acids researchNucleic Acids Research. 31
2002
2002. Identification of non-autonomous non-LTR retrotransposons in the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi. Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 124
2002. Trypanosoma cruzi: RNA structure and post-transcriptional control of tubulin gene expression. Experimental ParasitologyExperimental Parasitology. 102
2002. Analysis of stage-specific gene expression in the bloodstream and the procyclic form of Trypanosoma brucei using a genomic DNA-microarray. Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 123
2002. A new, expressed multigene family containing a hot spot for insertion of retroelements is associated with polymorphic subtelomeric regions of Trypanosoma brucei. Eukaryotic cellEukaryotic Cell. 1
2001
2001. Analysis of a donor gene region for a variant surface glycoprotein and its expression site in African trypanosomes. Nucleic acids researchNucleic Acids Research. 29
2000
2000. The African trypanosome genome. International Journal for ParasitologyInternational Journal for Parasitology. 30
1999
1999. More surprises from Kinetoplastida. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of AmericaProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 96
1998
1998. Multiple mechanisms of immune evasion by African trypanosomes. Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 91
1997
1997. A survey of the Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense genome using shotgun sequencing. Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 84
1997. African trypanosomes have differentially expressed genes encoding homologues of the Leishmania GP63 surface protease. Journal of Biological ChemistryJournal of Biological Chemistry. 272
1996
1996. Differential expression of the expression site-associated gene I family in African trypanosomes. Journal of Biological ChemistryJournal of Biological Chemistry. 271
1995
1995. Crystallization and preliminary X-ray investigation of the recombinant Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense calmodulin. Proteins: Structure, Function, and BioinformaticsProteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics. 21
1995. cDNA expressed sequence tags of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense provide new insights into the biology of the parasite. Molecular and Biochemical ParasitologyMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 73