Roxana Moslehi, Ph.D.

SUNY Assistant Professor
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
School of Public Health

Address:
Center for Cancer Genomics
1 Discovery Dr. Room 208
Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456

Phone:   (518) 591-7225
Fax:      (518) 591-7201
E-mail:   rmoslehi@albany.edu

    
Education:

2001-2006       Postdoctoral Fellowship [Genetic Epidemiology and Biostatistics], Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH Mentor: Dr. Mitchell Gail  

1996-2001      Ph.D. [Medical Genetics], University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC Mentors: Drs. JM Friedman (UBC) and Steven Narod (University of Toronto) ; Thesis: Genetic Epidemiologic Studies of Breast and Ovarian Cancers  

M.Sc. [Medical Genetics], University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver,BC
Mentor: Dr. JM Friedman (UBC)   Thesis: Genetic Linkage Studies of Heterogeneous Disorders: Breast Cancer, Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis and Malignant Hyperthermia

B.Sc.(Honours) [Cell & Developmental Biology], UBC, Vancouver, BC Mentor: Dr. Carl Douglas
Thesis: Genetic Transformation of Arabidopsis Thaliana Root Explants

Research Interests:
  As a genetic epidemiologist, the overall objectives of most of my research studies are to identify genetic and environmental determinants of human disorders and to quantify the effects of these factors on the risk of developing complex diseases. I have expertise in designing family-based and population-based genetic epidemiologic investigations and in statistical analysis of genetic and epidemiologic data from a wide range of study designs. I am also experienced in genetic counseling of individuals and families with hereditary susceptibility to disease. The methodologies currently employed in my laboratory include family-based and hospital-based case-control studies, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), candidate-gene and whole-genome linkage analyses, and gene expression (gene chip) array and transcriptome analyses. Various malignant and pre-malignant conditions have been the focus of most of my research. I have been studying cancer risks associated with abnormalities in DNA repair genes, such as hereditary breast cancer (BRCA1 & 2) and nucleotide excision repair (NER) genes for a number of years. Recently, based on novel clinical observations of increased risk of gestational complications associated with NER/transcription gene disorders, I have also initiated several studies into the role of DNA repair genes in human fetal development.


Courses Taught:

University at Albany Courses 
“Cancer Epidemiology” (EPI 604)  
 “Genetic Epidemiology” (EPI 624)  
“Masters Seminars in Epidemiology” (EPI 602)  
“Principles and Methods of Epidemiology II” (EPI 502)  
“Molecular Epidemiology” (EPI 512)  
“Introduction to Genetic Epidemiology” (EPI 512)    

George Washington University (GWU) Course 
“Current Controversies in Cancer Epidemiology”(PubH 209.14) 

Selected Publications:

Zeinomar N and Moslehi R. The Effectiveness of a Community-Based Breast Cancer Education Intervention in the New York State Capital Region. Journal of Cancer Education 2013 (In Press)  

Chen L, Bell EM, Browne M, Druschel C, Romitti P, Schmidt R, Burns T, Moslehi R, Olney RS and the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Maternal Caffeine Consumption and Risk of Congenital Limb Deficiencies. Birth Defects Research Part A: Clinical and Molecular Teratology 2012; 94 (12):1033-43

Moslehi R, Kumar A, Mills JL, Ambroggio X, Signore C and Dzutsev A. Phenotype-Specific Adverse Effects of XPD Mutations on Human Prenatal Development Implicate Impairment of TFIIH-Mediated Functions in Placenta. European Journal of Human Genetics 2012; 20: 626-631

Tamura D, Merideth M, DiGiovanna J, Zhou X, Tucker M, Goldstein A, Brooks B, Khan S, Oh K-S, Ueda T, Boyle J, Moslehi R* and Kraemer K*. High-Risk Pregnancy and Neonatal Complications in the DNA Repair and Transcription Disorder Trichothiodystrophy: Report of 27 Affected Pregnancies. Prenatal Diagnosis 2011; 31(11): 1046-1053             *Authors contributed equally as co-principal investigators on the project.   

Moslehi R, Schymura MJ, Nayak S and Coles FB. Ocular Adnexal Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Review of Epidemiology and Risk Factors. Expert Review of Ophthalmology 2011; 6(2): 181-193

Moslehi R, Coles FB, Schymura MJ. Descriptive Epidemiology of Ophthalmic and Ocular Adnexal Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Expert Review of Ophthalmology 2011; 6(2): 175-180

Moslehi R, Signore C, Tamura D, Mills J, DiGiovanna J, Tucker M, Troendle J, Ueda T, Boyle J, Khan S, Oh K-S, Goldstein A, Kraemer K. Adverse Effects of Trichothiodystrophy DNA Repair and Transcription Gene Disorder on Human Fetal Development. Clinical Genetics 2010; 77(4): 365-373

Moslehi R, Singh R, Lessner L, Friedman JM. Impact of BRCA Mutations on Female Fertility and Offspring Sex Ratio. American Journal of Human Biology 2010; 22(2): 201-205

Kuznetsov IB*, McDuffie M, and Moslehi R*. Application of supervised pattern recognition to infer N-acetyltransferase-2 (NAT2) enzymatic phenotype from NAT2 genotype. Bioinformatics 2009; 25(9):1185-1186 *Authors contributed equally and are co-corresponding authors on the manuscript  

Tan X, Moslehi R, Han W, and Spivack S. Haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms in the glutathione S-transferase P1 gene promoter and susceptibility to lung cancer. Cancer Detection and Prevention 2009; 32(5-6):403-415