Samira Asgari is an assistant professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She was born and raised in Iran. She completed her undergraduate and M.Sc. studies at the University of Tehran, Iran, her Ph.D. at EPFL, Switzerland, and her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Her research focused on understanding the human genetic basis of infection and immunity. Samira and het team hope to bring answer to the following questions through their research: What are the human genetic variants underlying susceptibility and resistance to specific pathogens? What are the molecular mechanisms connecting these variants to cellular functions and immune responses? and How do differences in population history and demography play into susceptibility and resistance to specific pathogens? She loves to read, hike, taste cheese, and draw.