Mashaal Sohail
Research Interests: History of evolutionary thought along and across the Atlantic in the 19th and early 20th centuries; evolutionary ideas in medieval Islamic philosophy and science; Orientalism in 19th century United States and Britain; visual STS.
Mashaal has a PhD in systems biology from Harvard University. She pursued an AM in history of science during graduate school. Her dissertation research in Shamil Sunyaev's lab used genetic data and novel statistical methodologies to understand the varieties of natural selection and adaptation in present-day and ancient humans. Her interests in the history of science includes the global history of biology and evolutionary thought, the history of psychiatry, the history of Islamic sciences and using post-colonial theory to approach these topics. Before coming to Harvard, she received a B. Sc from MIT in biological engineering. She is also passionate about science communication and sciart projects.
Papers/Presentations:
UMass EGO 9TH annual conference “Splintered boundaries: encounters, challenges, disruption,” 2017. Oral presentation, “Transmutation: the evolution of an idea”
Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2017. Oral presentation, “Negative selection in humans and fruit flies involves synergistic epistasis.”
American Society of Human Genetics, 2016. Oral presentation, “Negative selection in humans and fruit flies involves synergistic epistasis.”
Mashaal Sohail, Olga A Vakhrusheva, Jae Hoon Sul, Sara Pulit, Laurent Francioli, GoNL Consortium, Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Leonard H van den Berg, Jan H Veldink, Paul de Bakker, Georgii A Bazykin, Alexey S Kondrashov, Shamil Sunyaev. Negative selection in humans and fruit flies involves synergistic epistasis. Science (2017).
Virginia Savova*, Sung Chun*, Mashaal Sohail*, Ruth B. McCole, Robert Witwicki, Lisa Gai, Tobias L. Lenz, C.-ting Wu, Shamil R. Sunyaev, Alexander A. Gimelbrant. Genes with monoallelic expression contribute disproportionately to genetic diversity in humans. Nature Genetics (2016). *equal contribution
Degrees:
BSc., Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
AM., History of Science, Harvard University
PhD., System Biology, Harvard University