Ali Senejani, Ph.D.

Ali Senejani Headshot
Associate Professor
Coordinator, M.S. Cellular & Molecular Biology

Biology and Environmental Science Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Education

Post-doctoral training, Yale University School of Medicine
Ph.D., Genetics, University of Connecticut
M.S., Biotechnology, Mannheim University of Applied Science, Germany

Research Interests

My broad research objective is to study DNA damage and repair. I would like to contribute to our understanding of how different environmental factors, chemotherapies, and radiations can damage DNA.  Also, to study how the genetic variants in DNA repair pathway genes in the normal population and in patients can influence individual susceptibility and development of diseases such as cancer and autoimmunity.

Environmental and genetic factors are both important to promote genomic instability that lead to a series of mutations, some of which trigger initiation and/or progression of many diseases. The maintenance of genome integrity is dependent on numerous mechanisms, which notably allow fidelity of DNA replication and repair of damaged DNA. Those processes require a large number of proteins including DNA repair proteins to proceed. There are several hundreds of DNA repair protein variants in the germline of the human population and even more in aged populations and people with diseases; therefore it is important to uncover the correlation between altered DNA repair genes and human diseases. I am very interested to contribute to the in-depth understanding of the cellular, biochemical, and molecular genetic aspects of DNA repair, mutagenesis, cell cycle regulation, apoptosis and other biological responses in cells exposed to genomic insult.

Peer Reviewed Publications
  • Abolfath R., Khalili M., Senejani A.G., Kodery B., Ivker R. ӰԭThe Dependence of Compensation Dose on Systematic and Random Interruption Treatment Time in Radiation TherapyӰԭ Onco (MDPI) 2022, 2(3), 264-281
  • Zhao Sh., Habib S.L., Senejani A.G., Sebastian M., Kidane D.ӰԭRole of Base Excision Repair in Innate Immune Cells and Its Relevance for Cancer TherapyӰԭ Biomedicine 2022, 10(3), 557
  • Senejani A.G., Maghsoudlou J., El-Zohiry D., Gaur G., Wawrzeniak K., Caravaglia C., Khatri V.A., MacDonald A., Sapi E. ӰԭBorrelia burgdorferi co-localizing with amyloid markers in AlzheimerӰԭs disease brain tissuesӰԭ J Alzheimers Dis. 2022;85(2):889-903. doi: 10.3233/JAD-215398.
  • Torres J.P., Senejani A.G., Gaur G., Oldakowski M., Murali K., Sapi E. ӰԭEx vivo murine skin model for B. burgdorferi biofilmӰԭ Antibiotics (Basel) 2020 Aug 19;9(9):E528. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics9090528.
  • Wawrzeniak K., Gaur G., Sapi E., Senejani A.G. ӰԭEffect of Borrelia burgdorferi outer membrane vesicles on host oxidative stressӰԭ Antibiotics (Basel) 2020; 9(5); 275 (15 pages). doi: 10.3390/antibiotics9050275.
  • Farzad N., Cui C., Senejani A., Sinha S. ӰԭUltra-sensitive point of care biosensor for detecting pathogenesesӰԭ International Journal of High Speed Electronics and System, 2019 Vol. 28, Nos. 3 & 4, 1940014
  • Senejani A.G., Magrino J.M., Marston A., Gregoire M., Dinh K.D., ӰԭMenadione induces DNA damage and superoxide radical level In HEK293 cellsӰԭ SciencePG Cell Biology, 2019; 7(2); 14-22
  • Maung M.T., Opper S., Taisma K., Kirkor E.S., Senejani A.G., Sinha S.K. ӰԭIn-situ and quick detection of RNA virus by nanobiosensorӰԭ Biophysical Journal, 2019 Vol. 116, Issue 3, p444a
  • Farzad N., Opper S., Taisma K., Kirkor E.S., Senejani A.G., Sinha S.K. ӰԭHighly selective bionanosensor for quick detection of bacterial pathogens in foodӰԭ Biophysical Journal, 2019 Vol. 116, Issue 3, p316a
  • Alnajjar K., Ray S., Schechter A., Senejani A.G., Robison S., Criswell L., Dragon L., Sweasy J.B. ӰԭBase excision repair in the etiology of lupus and cancerӰԭ Book Chapter: The Base Excision Repair Pathway, 2017 pp. 449-499; ISBN: 978-981-4719-72-8
  • Lokanga R., Senejani A.G., Sweasy J.B., Usdin K. ӰԭHeterozygosity for a hypomorphic Pol β mutation reduces the expansion frequency in a mouse model of the repeat expansion disease Fragile X syndromeӰԭ PLOS Genetics 2015; 17;11(4) :e1005181)
  • Park H.J., Kim D.H., Choi J.Y., Kim W.J., Kim J.Y., Senejani A.G., Hwang S.S., Kim, L.K., Tobiasova Z., Lee G.R., Craft J., Choi J., Bothwell A.L., Choi J.M. ӰԭPPARγ negatively regulates T cell activation to prevent follicular helper T cells and germinal center formationӰԭ PLOS One 2014; 12;9(6)
  • Senejani A.G., Liu Y., Kidane D., Maher S.E., Zeiss C.J., Park H., Kashgarian M., McNiff J.M., Zelterman D., Bothwell A., Sweasy J.B. ӰԭMutation of a DNA repair enzyme causes Lupus in miceӰԭ Cell reports (CELL PRESS) 2014; 16;6(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2013.12.017.
  • Ray S., Menezes M.R., Senejani A., Sweasy J.B. ӰԭCellular roles of DNA polymerase betaӰԭ Yale J Biol Med 2013; 13;86(4):463-469
  • Sjolund A.B., Senejani A.G., Sweasy J.B. ӰԭMBD4 and TDG: multifaceted DNA glycosylases with ever expanding biological rolesӰԭ Mutation Research (ELSEVIER) 2013; 743-744:12-25
  • Senejani A.G., Dalal S., Liu Y., Nottoli T., McGrath J., Clairmont C.S., Sweasy J.B. ӰԭY265C DNA polymerase beta knock-in mice survive past birth and accumulate base excision repair intermediate substratesӰԭ Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2012; 109(17): 6632-7
  • A.G. and Sweasy J.B. ӰԭEukaryotic gene invasion by a bacterial mobile Insertion sequence element IS2 during cloning into a plasmid vectorӰԭ Genome Integrity 2010; 1(1):2.
  • Swithers K.S., Senejani A.G, Fournier G.P., Gogarten J.P. ӰԭConservation of intron and intein insertion sites: implications for life histories of parasitic genetic elementsӰԭ BMC Evol Biol 2009; 9:303 ӰԭBMC Highly accessed articleӰԭ
  • Senejani A.G. and Gogarten J.P. ӰԭStructural stability and endonuclease activity of PI-SceI GFP-fusion proteinӰԭ Int J Biol Sci 2007; 3:205-211
  • Gogarten J.P., Senejani A.G., Zhaxybayeva O., Olendzenski L. and Hilario E. ӰԭInteins: Structure, Function, and EvolutionӰԭ Annul. Review of Microbiology