Roksana Zakharyan, PhD

Roksana Zakharyan has joined CSE as a teaching assistant in 2015 and became an adjunct lecturer in 2018. During her PhD study Roksana spends 5 months at Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic. Since 2018 Roksana is the head of the Department of Bioengineering, bioinformatics and molecular biology of Russian-Armenian University. She has research interests in: molecular biology, genetics, and neuropsychiatry.

Higher education

2013, PhD in Biology
Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA

2007, Master in Physics (specialization: Molecular Physics)
Yerevan State University

2005, Bachelor of Physics
Yerevan State University

Courses taught:

Intro to Bioscience and its Impact on Research Business and Society

Publications:

  1.  Zakharyan R., Ghazaryan H., Kocourkova L., et al, Association of genetic variants of dopamine and serotonin receptors with schizophrenia, Archives of Medical Research 51(1):13-20, 2020.
  2. Avetyan D., Zakharyan R., Petrek M., Arakelyan A., Telomere shortening in blood leukocytes of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, Journal of Psychiatric Research 111:83-88, 2019.
  3. Ghazaryan H., Zakharyan R., Petrek M., et al., Expression of micro-RNAs miR-31, miR-146a, miR-181c and miR-155 and their target gene IL-2 are altered in schizophrenia: a case-control study, F1000Research 8(2077):2077, 2019.
  4. Zakharyan R., Hayrapetyan V., Karapetyan V., et al., The role of genetic polymorphism of cytochrome P450 family member in schizophrenia, European Neuropsychopharmacology 29:S454-S455, 2019.
  5. Avetyan D., Zakharyan R., Petrek M., Arakelyan A., Telomere shortening in blood leukocytes of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, Journal of Psychiatric Research 111:83-88, 2019.
  6. Zakharyan R., Arakelyan A. NGF in psychiatric disorders: update on current findings. Chapter in the “Advanced in Medicine and Biology”, Nova Science Publishers Inc., USA, v. 127, pp.85-104, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-53613-204-5.
  7. Stepanyan A., Zakharyan R., Simonyan A., et al., Involvement of polymorphisms of the nerve growth factor and its receptor encoding genes in the etiopathogenesis of ischemic stroke, BMC Medical Genetics 19(1):33, 2018.
  8. Atshemyan S., Chavushyan A., Berberian N., Sahakyan A., Zakharyan R., Arakelyan A., Characterization of BRCA1/2 mutations in patients with family history of breast cancer in Armenia, F1000Research 6:29,2017.
  9. Boyajyan A., Zakharyan R., Atshemyan S., Ghazaryan H., Chapter 5. Biopsychology of schizophrenia: novel molecular genetic markers of cognitive dysfunction, Advances in Psychology Research (Editor: A.M. Columbus), Nova Science Publishers Inc., USA, v. 110, pp. 69-124, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-63482-629-7.
  10. Zakharyan R., Atshemyan S., Telumyan E., Chavushyan A., Arakelyan A., Schizophrenia and contributory genetic combinations in Armenians, European Neuropsychopharmacology 26:S169, 2016.
  11. Atshemyan S., Telumyan E., Arakelyan A., Zakharyan R., Association of complexin-4 gene variants with schizophrenia, European Neuropsychopharmacology 26:S189, 2016.
  12. Ghazaryan H., Zakharyan R., Petrek M., Arakelyan A., Annexin-A11 expression and its single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in schizophrenia, European Neuropsychopharmacology 26:S178-S179, 2016.
  13. Boyajyan A., Zakharyan R., Atshemyan S., et al., Schizophrenia-associated risk and protective variants of c-Fos encoding gene, Recent Advances in DNA and Gene Sequencing 9(1):51-57, 2015.
  14. Zakharyan R., Atshemyan S., Gevorgyan A, Boyajyan A., Nerve growth factor and its receptor in schizophrenia, BBA Clinical 1:24-29, 2014.  
  15. Zakharyan R., Boyajyan A., Brain-derived neurotrophic factor blood levels are decreased in schizophrenia patients and associate with rs6265 genotypes, Clinical Biochemistry 47(12):1052-1055, 2014. 
  16. Zakharyan R., Boyajyan A., Inflammatory cytokine network in schizophrenia, World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 15(3):174-187, 2014. 
  17. Arakelyan A., Zakharyan R., Hambardzumyan M., et al., Functional genetic polymorphisms of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 and C-C chemokine receptor type 2 in ischemic stroke, Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research 34(2):100-105, 2014.
  18. Zakharyan R., Atshemyan S., Boyajyan A., Molecular biomarkers of schizophrenia: from biological signs to novel treatment targets, European Neuropsychopharmacology 23(2):S428, 2013.
  19. Boyajyan A., Zakharyan R., Khoyetsyan A., Chapter XI. Molecular and genetic indicators of aberrant immunity and apoptosis in schizophrenia, In: “Schizophrenia research: Recent advances (Editor: T. Sumiyoshi)”, Nova Science Publishers USA pp. 183-240, 2012.
  20. Zakharyan R., Petrek M., Arakelyan A., et al., Interleukin-6 promoter polymorphism and plasma levels in patients with schizophrenia, Tissue Antigens 80(2):136-142, 2012.
  21. Zakharyan R., Boyajyan A., Arakelyan A., et al., Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in schizophrenia: -2518A/G genetic variant and protein levels in Armenian population, Cytokine 58(3):351-354, 2012.
  22. Zakharyan R., Khoyetsyan A., Arakelyan A., et al., Association of C1QB gene polymorphism with schizophrenia in Armenian population, BMC Medical Genetics 12(1):126, 2011.
  23. Arakelyan A., Zakharyan R., Khoyetsyan A., et al., Functional characterization of the complement receptor type 1 and its circulating ligands in patients with schizophrenia, BMC Clinical Pathology 11:10, 2011.
  24. Zakharyan R., Boyajyan A., Arakelyan A., et al., Functional variants of the genes involved in neurodevelopment and susceptibility to schizophrenia in Armenian population, Human Immunology 72(9):746-748, 2011.
  25. Zakharyan R., Chavushyan A., Khoyetsyan A., et al., Genetic variants of the inflammatory C-reactive protein and schizophrenia in Armenian population: A pilot study, International Journal of Immunogenetics 37(5):407-410, 2010.

Research database IDs:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ak2OAlwAAAAJ

Awards:

2020, “The most productive young scientist-2018”, awarded by the Committee of Science, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia

2019, Winner of the Instrumental Access 2019 competition by Seeding Labs, USA

2018, Winner of the competition “The most productive young scientist-2017”, awarded by the Committee of Science, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia

2017, Winner of the competition “The most productive young scientist-2016”, awarded by the Committee of Science, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia

2017, Educational grant award, provided by the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) to attend special Educational Section at the 13th World congress of Biological Psychiatry, Copenhagen, Denmark
Educational grant award, provided by the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) to attend special Educational Section at the 12th World congress of Biological Psychiatry, Athens, Greece

2015, Award for the best presentation at section “Molecular medicine” at the Fifth international scientific-practical conference “Most up-to-date problems of biology, nanotechnology and medicine”, awarded by the Scientific Committee, Russian Federation

2015, Travel grant, IncoNet EaP project, FP7, attendance to the Horizon 2020 “Health, Demographic Change & Wellbeing” Health Partnering Day and Open Info Day, Brussels, Belgium

2013, Grant of “Searching for schizophrenia biomarkers among the genes of synaptic proteins” of the Armenian National Science and Education Fund (ANSEF), New York, USA, principal investigator

2013, Winner of the Young Scientists Competition “Best Scientific Work”,
Section of Biology, Awarded by the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, the World Armenian Congress, the Union of Armenians in Russia, and Ministry of Diaspora of the RA

2012, Grant of “Travel Support Program-2011” to participate in “Genomic disorders: genomics of rare diseases” conference, provided by the National Foundation of Science and Advanced Technologies (NFSAT) (TSP 09/2012)

2012, Grant of the “Materials and Equipment Purchase Support-2012” program, competition of the National Foundation of Science and Advanced Technologies (NFSAT) and Armenian International Woman Association (AIWA), principal investigator

2010, Grant of “Immunogenetics of schizophrenia: single nucleotide polymorphisms of immune response related genes”, Early Careers Support Program (ECSP), competition of the National Foundation of Science and Advanced Technologies (NFSAT), the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation and the State Committee of Science (SCS MES RA) (ECSP-09-70), principal investigator

2009, Grant of “Study of possible involvement of genetic polymorphisms of C-reactive protein and C1q component of the complement in pathogenesis of schizophrenia”, In-coming scholarship of the International Visegrad Fund (IVF) (#50910830), principal investigator

Office location: 332W, PAB

Office hours: Wednesday 9:00-9:25, 10:20-11:10 or upon scheduled appointment