Najib El-Sayed

Najib El-Sayed is a professor of cell biology and molecular genetics with a joint appointment in the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.
In 1998, he joined The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., where he led the sequencing, annotation, and comparative and functional genomic analyses of several human pathogens. El-Sayed has been at the University of Maryland since 2006. He currently directs the Next-Generation Sequencing Core at the university.
El-Sayed’s research program is focused on the study of the biology of parasitism and host-pathogen interactions using genomic and bioinformatics approaches with the ultimate goal of better understanding infection and survival mechanisms. These approaches include the development and application of molecular, computational and genomic tools. In the long term, his research will contribute to better diagnosis, prevention and therapeutics of parasite- and bacteria-caused diseases in humans, animals and plants.
He has published more than 70 research papers and serves on the editorial boards of BMC Genomics and PLoS One. El-Sayed also serves on National Institute of Health’s Genomics, Computational Biology and Technology study section, as well as on the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Genome Sequencing Centers for Infectious Diseases.
He received his doctorate in molecular parasitology from Yale University and trained as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of John Donelson at the University of Iowa.
Go here to view El-Sayed's academic publications on Google Scholar.
Publications
2008
2008. Role of transposable elements in trypanosomatids. Microbes and Infection. 10(6):575-581.
2008. Sequence diversity and evolution of multigene families in Trypanosoma cruzi. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 157(1):65-72.
2007
2007. New Trypanosoma cruzi Repeated Element That Shows Site Specificity for Insertion. Eukaryotic Cell. 6(7):1228-1238.
2007. Schistosoma mansoni genome: Closing in on a final gene set. Experimental Parasitology. 117(3):225-228.
2007. Cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutase is an essential gene in procyclic form Trypanosoma brucei. Parasitology research. 100(4):887-892.
2007. Microarray analysis of gene expression induced by sexual contact in Schistosoma mansoni. BMC Genomics. 8(1):181-181.
2006
2006. The Trypanosoma cruzi L1Tc and NARTc non-LTR retrotransposons show relative site specificity for insertion. Molecular biology and evolution. 23(2):411-411.
2006. Evolution of non-LTR retrotransposons in the trypanosomatid genomes: Leishmania major has lost the active elements. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 145(2):158-170.
2006. Schistosoma mansoni (Platyhelminthes, Trematoda) nuclear receptors: Sixteen new members and a novel subfamily. Gene. 366(2):303-315.
2005
2005. The Genome Sequence of Trypanosoma cruzi, Etiologic Agent of Chagas Disease. Science. 309(5733):409-415.
2005. Transcriptional profiling of the hyperthermophilic methanarchaeon Methanococcus jannaschii in response to lethal heat and non‐lethal cold shock. Environmental Microbiology. 7(6):789-797.
2005. The genetic map and comparative analysis with the physical map of Trypanosoma brucei. Nucleic acids research. 33(21):6688-6688.
2005. Comparative Genomics of Trypanosomatid Parasitic Protozoa. Science. 309(5733):404-409.
2005. Promoter architecture and response to a positive regulator of archaeal transcription. Molecular Microbiology. 56(3):625-637.
2005. The Genome Sequence of Trypanosoma Cruzi, Etiologic Agent of Chagas Disease. ScienceScience. 309(5733):409-415.
2004
2004. Advances in schistosome genomics. Trends in Parasitology. 20(4):154-157.
2004. Sequencing Strategies for Parasite Genomes. METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY-CLIFTON THEN TOTOWA-. 270:1-16.
2004. The ingi and RIME non-LTR retrotransposons are not randomly distributed in the genome of Trypanosoma brucei. Molecular biology and evolution. 21(3):520-520.
2004. Schistosoma mansoni genome project: an update. Parasitology International. 53(2):183-192.
2003
2003. The sequence and analysis of Trypanosoma brucei chromosome II. Nucleic acids research. 31(16):4856-4856.
2002
2002. Identification of non-autonomous non-LTR retrotransposons in the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 124(1-2):73-78.
2002. Analysis of stage-specific gene expression in the bloodstream and the procyclic form of Trypanosoma brucei using a genomic DNA-microarray. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 123(2):115-123.
2002. Trypanosoma cruzi: RNA structure and post-transcriptional control of tubulin gene expression. Experimental Parasitology. 102(3-4):123-133.
2001
2001. Analysis of a donor gene region for a variant surface glycoprotein and its expression site in African trypanosomes. Nucleic acids research. 29(10):2012-2012.
2000
2000. The African trypanosome genome. International Journal for Parasitology. 30(4):329-345.
1999
1999. More surprises from Kinetoplastida. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 96(6):2579-2579.
1998
1998. Multiple mechanisms of immune evasion by African trypanosomes. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 91(1):51-66.
1997
1997. A survey of the Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense genome using shotgun sequencing. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 84(2):167-178.
1997. African trypanosomes have differentially expressed genes encoding homologues of the Leishmania GP63 surface protease. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 272(42):26742-26742.
1996
1996. Differential expression of the expression site-associated gene I family in African trypanosomes. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 271(16):9771-9771.
1995
1995. cDNA expressed sequence tags of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense provide new insights into the biology of the parasite. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology. 73(1-2):75-90.
1995. Crystallization and preliminary X-ray investigation of the recombinant Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense calmodulin. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics. 21(4):354-357.