Curriculum vitae

General Information

NAME: Kasra Esfahani

DATE OF BIRTH: 21^th March 1975

PLACE OF BIRTH: Tehran, Iran

MARITAL STATUS: Married

PRESENT POSITION:Head of International and Public Affairs, BIDCO, IDRO.

ADDRESS: No. 61, 14th Alley, Kazeroon St., .Mirdamad Ave., Tehran, Iran.

TEL: ++98-21-2909595

FAX: ++98-21-2909597

E-mail:  [email protected]

Home page:  www.kasra.ir

EDUCATION

 High school: Allameh-Helli talented students' high school, Tehran, Iran

B.Sc.: Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran (1998)

M.Sc.: Agricultural Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran (2001)

 Ph.D.: Molecular Genetics, NRCGEB (Studying)

Professional courses:

• Journalism, Center for Media Studies and Research, Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance (1999-2000)
• Certification of the Workshop on Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), National Research Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (2000)
• Certification of the Workshop on GMP Regulation, Ministry of Health and WHO/EMRO (2002)

AWARDS / DISTINCTION / HONOURS

• 4th rank in National Employment Periodical Exam of Iran (2004)
• Pass entrance examination of Allameh-Helli Talented Students guidance and high school of Tehran (1985)
• Financial support by Agriculture Bank of Iran for top young under-graduated students of University of Tehran (1995)
• Best Paper Award in Iranian Young Researchers Society (IYRS) Congress (1996)
• The first rank in M.Sc. entrance examination, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran (1998)
• Students' Travel Fellowship of the 9th FAOBMB Congress, Lahore, Pakistan (2001)
• Travel Fellowship of the 16th FAOBMB Symposium, Taipei, Taiwan (2002)

 POSITION HELD    

• Head of Technical Services and Research Support Department, "Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran"
• Executive committee member of the Iranian Biotechnology Society (2002-till now)
• Executive committee member of the Iranian Genetics Society (2002-2004)
• Executive Core Member of the Plant Genetics group, Iranian Genetics Society (2002-2004)
• Editor-in-Chief of Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran Newsletter (2003-till now)
• Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Iranian Biotechnology and Genetics News Agency (Online Persian News Agency in this address: http://genetics.persianblog.com) (2002-till now)
• Research Assistant in a national project entitled ?Cloning of an acid phosphatase gene that has a role in phosphate uptake in phosphate starvation condition from Arabidopsis thaliana? (1998-2002)
• Member of the National Strategy Planning Committee for Bioinformatics Development in Iran (2001-2002)
• Member of the National Strategy Planning Committee for Plant Biotechnology Development in Iran (2002-2003)
• Scientific Committee Member of the Third National Biotechnology Congress (2003)
• International communication expert of Scientific and International Collaboration Office of National Research Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NRCGEB) (2000-2001)
• Administrative Assistant of  the "Proteomics Workshop" (2004)
• Administrative Assistant of the Seminar on "Human Genome Diversity in Islamic Countries" (2002)
• Administrative Assistant of  the "8th Iranian Genetics Congress" (2003-till now)
• Member, Iranian Society for Crop Production and Plant Breeding
• Webmaster of the Iranian Genetics Society Web Site (2002- till now)
• Webmaster of the Iranian Biotechnology Society Web Site (2002)
• Webmaster of the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran Web Site (2004)
• Webmaster of the Iranian Journal of Biotechnolgy Web Site (2002)
• Chairman of the Young Researchers Council (1998-2000)
• Founder and supervisor of chemistry research group of Allameh-Helli talented students high school (1996-1998)
• Organizing short training courses in Noavaran-Ebnsina Institute (2001-2002)

LABORATORY SKILLS

• Basic Laboratory Skills (Restriction Enzyme Digestion, PCR, Electrophoresis?)
• Gene expression analysis by Competitive RT-PCR
• Gene Cloning, Screening of different clones by Colony PCR
• DNA Extraction, Southern blotting
• Cell and Tissue Culture methods
• Bacterial Transformation methods

COMPUTER SKILLS

• More than basic and routine skills in using few operating systems and many softwares
• DNA analyzing computer softwares (Mapdraw, Megalign, Editseq, DNAsis and Seqman)
• Word Processing, Microsoft Office
• Website Designing

 INTERESTS  

• Synthesis PHA in transgenic plants
• Tissue Culture
• Stem cell technology and cloning
• Developmental biology
• Producing transgenic resistant crops against abiotic stresses (emphasis on drought stress)
• Studying of the expression pattern of an acid phosphatase gene from Arabidopsis thaliana under abiotic stresses
• Journalism activity in the field of Biotechnology, Genetics and Genetic Engineering (Both in printing and online format)
• Teaching in the field of computer, Biotechnology, Genetics and Biology
• Study of the ethical, cultural, religious and economical aspects of application of biotechnology
• Strategy planning

PUBLICATIONS/ SEMINARS

• Esfahani, K., Lohrasbi, T., Shobbar, Z., Malboobi, M. A. and Shah-Nejat Bousheheri, A. A. (2001). The expression pattern of a phosphate starvation inducible gene encoding an acid phosphatase from Arabidopsis thaliana.10th Iranian Congress of Biology, Shiraz, Iran.

• Esfahani, K., Lohrasbi, T., Shobbar, Z., Malboobi, M. A. and Shah-Nejat Bousheheri, A. A. (2001). Studying of the expression pattern of an acid phosphatase gene from Arabidopsis thaliana under some stresses. 2nd National Congress of Biotechnology, Karaj, Iran.

• Esfahani, K., Lohrasbi, T., Shobbar, Z., Malboobi, M. A. and Shah-Nejat Bousheheri, A. A. (2001). The Effects of Phosphate Deficiency on Expression of an Arabidopsis thaliana Acid Phosphatase Gene. 9th FAOBMB Congress, Lahore, Pakistan.

• Esfahani, K. and Malboobi, M.A. (2002). cDNA cloning and expression analysis of psr12 gene, encoding an acid phosphatase. 16th FAOBMB Symposium, Taipei, Taiwan.
• Lohrasbi, T., Malboobi, M. A., Esfahani, K., and Saneii, V. (2003). Isolation of Phosphate Induced Acid Phosphatase Genes From Arabidopsis thaliana. 7th International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology, Barcelona, Spain.
• Esfahani, K. and Malboobi, M.A. (2003). Expression pattern of an acid phosphatase gene under environmental stresses in Arabidopsis thaliana. 7th PSBMB Int. Conference, Lahore, Pakistan.
• Esfahani, K. and Malboobi, M.A. (2003). Over expression of an acid phosphatase gene under cold stress condition in Arabidopsis thaliana. 8th Iranian Genetics Congress, Tehran, Iran.
• Esfahani, K., Farazmand, A., Molavi M.A. and Sanati, M.H. (2003). Human Cloning. NRCGEB, Tehran, Iran (Under Publication).
• Farazmand, A., Esfahani, K., Molavi M.A., and Sanati, M.H. (2003). Human Cloning: Scientific and Technical Dilemma. International Congress of Bioethics (UNESCO), Tehran, Iran.
• Esfahani, K., and Sanati, M.H. (2003) National and International Reactions to Human Cloning. 3rd National Congress of Biotechnology. Mashad, Iran.
• Esfahani, K., and Mirderekvand, M. (2003). Economic aspects of GM crops in Iran. 3rd National Congress of Biotechnology. Mashad, Iran.
• Sanati, M.H., Noraie, M., Ghareyazie, B., Khayam, M., Malboobi, M.A., Behnia, S., Esfahani, K., and Moshiri, M. (2004) National Strategy of Biotechnology in Plant Science-National State. National Biotechnology Committee, Tehran, Iran (Persian Book).
• Sanati, M.H., Noraie, M., Ghareyazie, B., Esfahani, K., Behnia, S., Khayam, M., Maroof, E., and Majidi, E. (2004) National Strategy of Biotechnology in Plant Science-Intenational Review. National Biotechnology Committee, Tehran, Iran (Persian Book).
• Sanati, M.H. and National Strategy Planning Team for Biotechnology (2002). Ethics in Biotechnology. NRCGEB, Tehran, Iran. (Persian Book).