About Me
My curiosity in nature and biology started since I was growing up in a farmer family and small village in my motherland "Kurdistan". This interest deepened over time, and I found myself on an exciting journey teaching general biology as a high school teacher. Afterward, I earned a Master of Science degree in Biotechnology. Thereafter, I continued my education and achieved a PhD in "Molecular Biology and Genetics" in 2016 from Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Throughout my PhD studies, I focused on the role of microRNA miR-302 cluster in maintaining the stemness state of both regular and cancerous stem cells in a breast cancer mouse model. In particular, I focused on understanding the transcriptional regulation of the miR-302 host gene. Additionally, I utilized the CRISPR tools to examine the in vivo expression profile of miR-302.
After my Ph.D. I got three years postdoc position at the lab of Prof. Jorgen Kjems at Aarhus University. I followed with an assistant professor position at the Department of molecular biology and Genetics until I moved to Harvard Medical School in October 2022. During this time, I focused on circular RNA studies, including biogenesis and their function in neuronal development. I also developed two methods for global and panel-adjusted Nanopore long-read sequencing of circRNAs and studied their isoforms and how differentiate from their linear host RNAs. I used CRISPR Cas13 and developed an approach to design and employ synthetic sgRNAs for functional assays of circRNAs. Additionally, I made a synthetic circRNA for efficient sponging of miR-134 with therapeutic goals for epilepsy treatment. Circular RNAs are more stable than linear RNA molecules which make them good candidates for use as therapeutic agents in the near future.
I have also worked on developing a synthetic gene circuit to overexpress GDNF in response to the up-regulation of tRNA fragments to prevent epilepsy conditions in the human brain.
In October 2022, I joined the lab of Prof. Norbert Perrimon as a Research Associate in Genetics at Harvard Medical School In Boston. In the Perrimon's lab, I systematically investigate the effectiveness of CRISPR-based tools for high-throughput gene knockdown and functional studies, which include Cas13 and CRISPRi approaches. Additionally, I employ Nanopore long-read sequencing to explore how epigenetic factors and DNA methylation influence gene expression profiles in Drosophila. I study methods to write and erase such modifications for subsequent functional studies.
KurdAI platform has been a long-term nonprofit goal and was developed and established by Karim Rahimi who is originally from Rojhellat of Kurdistan, and currently working as scientist at Harvard University in Boston, USA. He is a dedicated Geneticist and passionate about implementing science for public good (www.karimrahimi.com; www.zanyaran.org).
Additionally, I have a strong experiences in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) and Natural Language processing (NLP) not only for better understanding the complexity of biological pathways, but I tried to become an expert AI-NLP-LLM at the first place to serve my mother language which is Kurdish and all other languages in particular those which are facing a new type of assimilation in this AI age! I believe that every language is a precious heritage of humanity, deserving fair protection and preservation; they enrich each other through their unique expressions and the power of diversity, and any form of assimilation and discrimination that threatens their existence should be seriously opposed.