My prime interest is to investigate the role of epigenetics in helping corals to adapt in rapidly increasing global temperature. I am trying to find connections between the DNA methylation pattern, along with few histone modifications, and gene expression at a global level. And linking this for explaining the phenotypic responses, majorly bleaching, with rise in temperature. It's interesting to know at what extent corals can survive after ejection of algae (provide food and magnificent colors to coral) in higher temperatures.
I basically love to play with big data generated from cells; especially NGS data. I consider my expertise is helping to connect biology with bioinformatics, and try to solve the data-driven problems for a biological system. Apart from running pipelines, I focuses more what final visualization from data trying to say in terms of new discoveries and significance.
Besides performing bioinformatics analysis and code writing in Python and R, I am learning different effective ways to convey scientific findings to diverse audiences. This includes mainly use of common metaphors to relate my message, inclusion of several variables in one graph to make it more informative (same time not increasing its complexity), and overcoming the art of writing so that my finings look more appealing and comprehensive.
Selected Publications
Genome invasion by hypo-methylated satellite repeat in Australian crucifer Ballantinia antipoda PA Finke A, Mandáková T, Nawaz K, Vu G, Novák P, Macas J, Lysak MA The Plant Journal, (2019)
Perpetual flowering coordinates the vernalization response and perennial flowering in Arabis alpina Ana Lazaro, Yanhao Zhou, Miriam Giesguth, Kashif Nawaz, Sara Bergonzi, Ales Pecinka, Georg... Journal of experimental botany, (2018)
Draft genome sequence of Cicer reticulatum L., the wild progenitor of chickpea provides a resource for agronomic trait improvement Sonal Gupta, Kashif Nawaz (co-first author), Sabiha Parween, Riti Roy, Kamlesh Sahu, Anil Kumar Pole,... Dna Research, (2016)
An advanced draft genome assembly of a desi type chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Sabiha Parween, Kashif Nawaz (co-first author), Riti Roy, Anil K Pole, B Venkata Suresh,... Scientific reports, (2015)
Global analysis of WRKY transcription factor superfamily in Setaria identifies potential candidates involved in abiotic stress signaling Mehanathan Muthamilarasan, Venkata S Bonthala, Rohit Khandelwal, Jananee Jaishankar, Shweta Shweta, Kashif Nawaz and Manoj Prasad Frontiers in plant science, (2015)
Education
Ph.D. Nucleosome Dynamics in Plants - Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding, Cologne, Germany (2015 - 2018)
Master (M. Tech.) Computational and Systems Biology - Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India (2012 - 2014)
Bachelor (B. Tech.) Industrial Biotechnology - Dr. MGR University, Chennai, India (2008 - 2014)
