Research Projects
We are thankful to the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan Science Foundation, Higher Education Department of KP and NIH Islamabad etc. for their support and funding.
The NeurOmics Project of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Funder: Higher Education Commission
The NeurOmics project of KP was started by Dr. Ilyas in collaboration with University College London which was later funded by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The project is focused on rare neurological diseases with the aims to: a) find novel disease-causing genes, b) improve diagnostics, and c) help in developing therapies for these disorders. The project brought together the important stakeholders in the field, from researchers, clinicians, bioinformaticians, patients, and genetic experts.
The Genetic Architecture of Pashtuns
Funder: Higher Education Commission
This research study was proposed by our group and approved by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to establish the first molecular anthropology facility in Pakistan, where ancient bones, teeth, blood, saliva and buccal swabs can be used for genetic characterization of modern and ancient populations residing in Pakistan. The main goal of this project is to establish an interdisciplinary team of anthropologists, scientists, geneticists and bioinformaticians who collectively work to produce highly likely genetic variants that have modeled the extant genetic diversity in the ancient and modern populations (such as migrations, bottlenecks and admixture). We have collected a number of ancient bone specimens as well as modern samples from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan to do the molecular characterization.
A Reference Database of Genetic Variants in the Pakistani Populations
Funder: None
Here we present the Pakistan Genetic Variants Database (available at http://pgvdb.com) where we collected and documented variants reported in the Pakistani populations from published articles available in PubMed and other online resources. The information in the PGVdb allow investigators and clinicians to find disease associated mutations along with all possible information like genotype, phenotype, disease associated, OMIM, ClinVar, PubMed, HGVS and dbSNP etc. The PGVdb is user friendly public portal where genetic variation data in Pakistani populations can be obtained.
Bioinformatic Analysis Services
Funder: None
We provide services to our partners and collaborators in the data analysis and bioinformatic studies.
GenoLoca (Mobile App)
Funder: None
We have developed a mobile app for people with genetic disorders and their caregivers. This app will help us survey patients and families suffering from genetic disease. Answering the questions in the app will provide researchers with the information and location of the patient or their acquaintances. After which the team of researchers will personally contact them and if necessary, blood samples will be taken from them. Our work is to collect important patient data at scale, which will accelerate diagnosis, understanding of disease, and future treatments.
Funded Projects:
Dissecting the Genetic Architecture of Neurological Disorders in Pursuit of Potential Therapeutic Interventions. Principal Investigator | HEC | 2022 | 7.183 million | Running
Whole genome sequencing based prediction of antibiotic resistance developing in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from patients co-infected with HIV. Co-Principal Investigator | NIH | 2022 | 3.794 million | Running
Genetic Architecture of Neurological Disorders in Pakhtun Population. Principal Investigator | Pakistan Sciences Foundation | 2023 | 4.0 million | Awarded
Development of Diagnostic Assay for Determination of Mutated & Unmutated Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). Co-Principal Investigator | HED | 2023 | 2.5 million | Awarded
Risk factors and genetic analysis of Parkinson diseases in populations of KP. Co-Principal Investigator | HEC | 2016 | 0.5 million | Completed
Strengthening of Human Genetics laboratory. Principal Investigator | HEC | 2017 | 2.51 million | Completed
MinION nanopore sequencing of Dengue virus. Principal Investigator | HEC 2016 | 0.5 million | Completed
Molecular Anthropology of Ancient Bone specimens collected from Pakistan. Co-Principal Investigator | HEC | 2016 | 4.0 million | Completed
Reconstructing genetic history of Yousafzai’s using Y-STR markers. Co-Principal Investigator | HEC | 2016 | 0.5 million | Completed