Rate My Professor Mahsa Mousaviderazmahalleh

Dr. Mahsa Mousaviderazmahalleh serves as a Lecturer in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, at Curtin University. She is recognized as an early-career researcher specializing in Applied Bioinformatics and is a key member of the Trace and Environmental DNA (TrEnD) Laboratory. Mahsa completed her PhD in Applied Bioinformatics within Agricultural Science at The University of Western Australia in 2018. Her doctoral research centered on the domestication and biodiversity of narrow-leafed lupin, including the development of genomic resources for seven associated fungal pathogens through bioinformatic methods. She was awarded the Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship in 2014 to support her PhD studies. Following her doctorate, she joined TrEnD in 2018 as a postdoctoral researcher on an NHMRC-funded project aimed at identifying causative agents of tick-borne diseases in Australia via metabarcoding techniques. Her career also includes a postdoctoral fellowship at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

Mahsa's research focuses on bioinformatics applications in environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, biomonitoring, and genomic resource development. Current projects include genomic resources for the Pilbara Olive Python under the eDGES program. She has contributed significantly to plant genomics, pathogen adaptation, and eDNA methodologies. Notable publications include 'The western Mediterranean region provided the founder population of domesticated narrow-leafed lupin' (Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 2018), 'Prediction of pathogenicity genes involved in adaptation to a lupin root rot fungus' (2019), 'Climate-assisted persistence of tropical fish vagrants in temperate waters' (Communications Biology, 2021), 'The rise of genomics in snake venom research: recent advances and future prospects' (GigaScience, 2022), and 'Aquatic environmental DNA: a review of the macro-organismal metabarcoding workflow' (Science of the Total Environment, 2023). Mahsa supervises Master and PhD students, such as Alen Nolan and Ben, and acts as principal investigator for the Lupin-pathogens project at Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Her interdisciplinary work advances crop domestication studies, biodiversity monitoring, and disease vector research.