Mohamed Mahgoub, MBBS PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Institutes of Health

I am a physician, biomedical scientist, and computational biologist. I accumulated versatile skill sets from working in the clinic, lab bench, and on the Linux terminal during my career. As a physician-scientist, my long-term career goal is to study the genetic basis of disease. I have a particular interest in the role of so-called "Junk" non-coding DNA in genetic diseases and cancer.

Experience

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

National Institutes of Health

Now I am working in Macfarlan lab at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I am broadly interested in studying transposable elements' expression regulation during meiosis. My research explores how mammals evolved self-protection mechanisms during meiosis to prevent homologous recombination at repetitive regions, which can lead to severe genetic disorders. I identified two novel genes (Zcwpw1 and Zcwpw2), which play a critical role in DNA repair during meiotic recombination and are essential for fertility. My career path allowed me to gain a wide array of molecular biology, mouse genetics, and computation biology experience. After finishing my research at the NIH, I plan to pursue training in clinical genetics. By taking advantage of the unique combination of skills that I acquired, I aspire to be a pioneer in human genetics.

Septmeber 2018 - Present

PhD Studies

Kyoto University

I did my PhD in Matsuoka's lab at Kyoto University, Japan. My study there was a unique research experience, as I worked on projects in a field in which virology, immunology, and cancer all overlap. I studied the molecular mechanisms of viral oncogenesis by using HTLV-1 (Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1) as a model. My focus was on how the virus can establish latency and fine-tune its gene expression to simultaneously evade immunity and manipulate the transcriptome of hosting cells to promote cancer. I used cutting-edge molecular techniques to monitor viral and host gene expression at the single-cell level.

April 2012 - August 2018

Pediatrics Resident

Doctors’ Clinic, Sudan

Resident Doctor in pediatrics Department.

July 2009 - December 2011

Teaching Assistant

Khartoum University

As teaching assistant in department of microbiology at faculty of Medicine, I taught undergraduate medical students in practical sessions. Also I supervised group discussions for clinical-oriented microbiology problems' tutorials.

March 2008 – March 2012

Medical Intern

Federal Ministry of Health , SUDAN

Postgraduate medical internship training, rotating between different clinical departments (Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Orthopedics).

August 2007 – October 2008

Education

PhD in Medicine and Medical Science

Kyoto University
April 2013 – March 2018

Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS)

University Of Khartoum, Faculty Of Medicine
December 2000 – March 2007

Skills

Molecular Biology/Genetics
  • Basic Molecular techniques (cloning, PCR/qPCR, Sanger sequencing, ELISA, Western blotting/IP, etc.).
  • Cell culture, transfection, and lentivirus transduction.
  • Flow cytometry and cell sorting.
  • Immunofluorescence microscopy and live cell imaging.
  • CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing.
  • Single cell transcriptome and genome analysis.
  • Next generation sequencing using Illumina, PacBio and Oxford Nanopore platforms.
  • Mouse genetics:
    • Design of genetic knock-out mouse models using both mouse embryonic stem cells and zygotic injection methods.
    • Mouse handling: breeding, genotyping, dissection, etc.


Computational & Bioinformatics
  • Linux command line and Bash scripting for bioinformatics analysis in local Linux machines and High-Performance Computing (HPC) Systems.
  • Use of Cluster management and job scheduling systems for HPC systems (SLURM)
  • Design of bioinformatics pipelines using Nextflow workflow management system (Example in this link).
  • Building and usage of bioinformatics containers (Docker and Singularity)
  • Python scripting and programming: API queries, data retrieval and manipulation, data visualization, pipeline design.
  • R and Bioconductor suite usage.
  • Code version control using Git and GitHub.
  • Basics of Web Development (HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flask).


Teaching
  • Postgraduate experience in tutoring medical students in microbiology practical sessions and tutorials.
  • Mentoring Clinical fellows in NIH Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Training Program during their research years.


Exams & Licensure

  • Sudan Medical Council Full Registration (2009)
  • United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 2 CK, Score: 256 (2009)
  • International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Score: 7.5 (2009)
  • Science Teaching Online Fellows Program, American Society for Microbiology (2015)

Grants

  • National Institutes of Health: NICHD Fellows Recruitment Incentive Award, 2021
    • Title: Identification of Novel Dual Histone Methylation Readers Critical for Meiotic Recombination.

  • National Institutes of Health: NICHD Young Investigator Award, 2021
    • • Title: Studying Expression of Transposable Elements using Long-Read Full-length mRNA Sequencing.

Publications

Mahgoub M, Paiano J, Bruno M, Wu W, Pathuri S, Zhang X, Ralls S, Cheng X, Nussenzweig A, Macfarlan TS. Dual histone methyl reader ZCWPW1 facilitates repair of meiotic double strand breaks in male mice. Elife. 2020 Apr 30;9.
PubMed   Journal

Bruno M, Mahgoub M, Macfarlan TS. The Arms Race Between KRAB-Zinc Finger Proteins and Endogenous Retroelements and Its Impact on Mammals. Annu Rev Genet. 2019 Dec 3;53:393-416.
PubMed   Journal

Mahgoub M, Yasunaga JI, Iwami S, Nakaoka S, Koizumi Y, Shimura K, Matsuoka M. Sporadic on/off switching of HTLV-1 Tax expression is crucial to maintain the whole population of virus-induced leukemic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Feb 6;115(6):E1269-E1278.
PubMed   Journal

Furuta R, Yasunaga JI, Miura M, Sugata K, Saito A, Akari H, Ueno T, Takenouchi N, Fujisawa JI, Koh KR, Higuchi Y, Mahgoub M, Shimizu M, Matsuda F, Melamed A, Bangham CR, Matsuoka M. Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 infects multiple lineage hematopoietic cells in vivo. PLoS Pathog. 2017 Nov;13(11):e1006722.
PubMed   Journal

Sugata K, Yasunaga J, Kinosada H, Mitobe Y, Furuta R, Mahgoub M, Onishi C, Nakashima K, Ohshima K, Matsuoka M. HTLV-1 Viral Factor HBZ Induces CCR4 to Promote T-cell Migration and Proliferation. Cancer Res. 2016 Sep 1;76(17):5068-79.
PubMed   Journal

Complete List of Publications in PubMed

Awards & Prizes

  • Oral presentation award, The 18th International Conference on Human Retrovirology: HTLV and Related Viruses, Tokyo (March 2017).
  • Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship for International students (April 2012).
  • University Prize for Best Academic Performance in Pediatrics and Childhood health, University of Khartoum - Faculty of Medicine (2007).
  • University Prize for Best Academic performance in 3rd Year, University of Khartoum - Faculty of Medicine (2003).
  • University Prize for Best Academic Performance in Physiology, University of Khartoum - Faculty of Medicine (2003).
  • 3rd Best Academic performance in Sudanese High Secondary Schools National Exams (2000). This is nationwide university entrance exams in which I scored third among more the 100,000 candidates.

Interests

Apart from biology and medicine, I enjoy reading a book while drinking coffee. I am interested in history and fiction books. Carlos Zafon’s masterpiece “The Shadow of the Wind” is my favorite book. I also enjoy learning to code for fun (and to make my life in science easier!)