fadi alkayal

* I involved in several inherited diseases studies to diagnose and discover possible novel genetic cause of the disease. Auto immune deficiency disorders was the major project; I screened candidate genes using Sanger direct sequencing for patients to generate a diagnostic report for known mutations, while patients with negative results were selected for further linkage analysis using Affymatrix genechip protocol. * Develop new technical assays for mutation detection. * Manage the research center sequencing core facility using MegaBace DNA sequence instrument and oligonucleotide design and order. * Train and supervise students for summer interim project, support lab personnel in the requirements for College of American Pathologist accreditation.

Abiotic stresses have negative impacts on plants; improve the drought, salinity and cold tolerance in grapes (Vitis vinifera) will allow the grapes to be grown in the northern Nevada. The approach was to conduct integrated transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome analysis for different stress conditions; I was involved mainly in applying stresses (drought, salinity, and cold) on plants to develop cDNA libraries from leaves, roots and fruits of V. vinifera. Using molecular biology techniques, I screened about 120,000 EST generated from different libraries to characterize the grape transcriptome. Other duties in the lab: organize and follow up orders related to the project, train and supervise undergraduate students to enhance the data mining, care for plants in the green house and the field, and general lab inventory.

M.Sc degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology