Draft:Priya Moorjani

Introduction

Priya Moorjani is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She works in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and specializes in the study of genetics and evolutionary biology. Her work in studying the genetics of multicultural populations created breakthroughs in research of West Eurasian and South Asians.

Biography

Priya Moorjani earned her bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Mumbai in 2003. She then went on to get her master’s degree in bioinformatics from George Washington University in 2008 and her PhD in genetics from Harvard University in 2013. For four years, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University before taking a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She has held that position since January of 2018.

Impacts

While working towards her doctorate, Moorjani wrote her dissertation over genetics and how they can be used to study the ancestry of populations. In this dissertation, she developed new techniques and methods for analyzing the genetic data, especially in multi-ethnic populations. Her methods were especially unique because of her background in computer engineering. She incorporated technology and computers into her research, which allowed her to work more efficiently when looking at patterns in genes and evolution in humans throughout history. Her work is also used to discover the genes that are adapted to create genetic diseases and mutations. Even today, she continues to work at the University of California, Berkeley both as a teacher and a researcher. She is furthering her research into the genetic and evolutionary history of South Asians and West Eurasians. This involves using various genetic samples to look at major evolutionary events throughout the history of this population, hoping to pinpoint areas were genetic mutations and changes may have occurred to create the humans that are around today.