Lilia Romdhane

I am an Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics and Genetics in the Department of Life Sciences within the Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, part of the University of Carthage in Tunisia. I am also an Associate Researcher at the Laboratory of Biomedical Genomics and Oncogenetics at the Pasteur Institute of Tunis. My main research activities are devoted to the study of rare genetic diseases, particularly their features in the Tunisian population, but also in the North African population more generally, which are characterized by high rates of consanguinity. With the recent availability of next-generation sequencing and high-throughput genotyping data for individual Tunisians, my research activities have shifted to the study of genome structure and its impact on health in order to provide genomic resource tools for medical genomics in North Africa. As the COVID-19 virus is an emerging disease, I have recently gotten involved in a project that aims to understand the host-pathogen interaction in the Tunisian population. I'm also the principal investigator of many projects on investigation of rare genetic diseases using genomic and bioinformatic approaches. As a member of AGYA, I hope to build research collaborations that will lead to innovative approaches for the management of rare genetic diseases in North African populations, as well as to improvements in the lives of people with reduced mobility.

Being an AGYA member is a great opportunity to meet people from different disciplines that will allow me to build collaborative research relationships and widen my scientific perspectives.

It is also a chance to exchange expertise at the regional and international level and to get in touch with people from different cultures in Germany and other Arab countries.

Academic career