Welcome to the World of Circular DNA!
Thank you to the Beckman Foundation for highlighting our work on Circular DNA! Click here to read the story.
Note: This website will migrate to www.circulome.net in 2022
I'm Massa and I work at the interface of Biophysics, Bioengineering, and Genomics. Currently, I am an Arnold O. Beckman and AHA Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.
My projects are focused on understanding the fundamentals of how multicellular organisms process information and respond to genetic and environmental change. This, in turn, requires identification and analysis of intercellular variation. Cellular heterogeneity is evident from the various cell types that make up our bodies, yet elements that manifest genomic diversity are seldom annotated and questions of their biogenesis and function remain largely unanswered. Thus, we often assume that all cells within an organism operate according to the same static genome. My work, a fusion of biophysics and genomics, challenges this assumption by providing evidence for cell-type-specific, programmed genomic heterogeneity at a number of previously assumed-to-be static genomic elements.
Future work is focused on the following questions:
The outcome will be novel tools in synthetic biology, single-cell biophysics, and mathematical modelling. By combining these tools with expertise in physics, bioengineering, and human and model-system genomics, my future group will aim to lay the necessary groundwork for elucidating how cells collectively perform systems-level functions in healthy and diseased states.
Science Benefits from Diversity!!
The quality of the scientific-research enterprise, and its ability to meet the needs of, and positively impact the lives of individuals, communities, nations, and the world is inextricably linked to the individuals/scientists involved. Each person’s unique life experiences yields a unique approach to novel problems. As a result, diversity is essential to success in the sciences, yet there have been systemic barriers to minorities (underrepresented with respect to race, ethnicity, or gender) who wish to enter STEM careers.
Education
“Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.” –George R.R. Martin
Stanford University Medical School
2015- Present
Stanford Medicine Dean's and Arnold O. Beckman Fellow
University of Texas at Dallas
2015
PhD in Biomedical Engineering
University of Texas at Dallas
2013
PhD in Molecular Cell Biology and Biophysics
University of Leeds
2012
Visiting Researcher
University of Texas at Dallas
2010
MS in Molecular and Cell Biology
University of Texas at Dallas
2008
BS in Cell Biology and Biophysics (Fast Track)
Richland College, DCCCD
2005-2006
Various classes in various disciplines
Publications
2012-Current
Dae-Eun Jeong, Matthew McCoy, Karen Artiles, Orkan Ilbay, Andrew Fire*, Kari Nadeau, Helen Park, Brooke Betts, Scott Boyd, Ramona Hoh, and Massa Shoura*
*Co-Corresponding
Yusuke Takahash*, Massa J. Shoura*, Andrew Fire, Shinichi Morishita
*Co-first
In Review
Katharina Röltgen, Sandra CA Nielsen, Prabhu S Arunachalam, Fan Yang, Ramona A Hoh, Oliver F Wirz, Alexandra S Lee, Fei Gao, Vamsee Mallajosyula, Chunfeng Li, Emily Haraguchi, Massa J. Shoura, James L Wilbur, Jacob N Wohlstadter, Mark M Davis, Benjamin A Pinsky, George B Sigal, Bali Pulendran, Kari C Nadeau, Scott D Boyd
MedRxiv, 2021
Lamia Wahba*, Nimit Jain*, Andrew Z. Fire*, Massa J. Shoura*, Karen Artiles*, Matthew J. McCoy*, Dea-Eun Jeaong*
mSphere, 2020 *All authors contributed equally to this work. Author order was chosen randomly
Chris Bailey, Massa J. Shoura, Paul S.Mischel, Charles Swanton
Annals of Oncology, 2020
Massa J. Shoura, Stefan M Giovan, Alexandre V Vetcher, Riccardo Ziraldo, Andreas Hanke, Stephen D. Levene
Nucleic Acids Research, 2020
Jun Yoshimura*, Kazuki Ichikawa*, Massa J. Shoura*, Karen L Artiles*, Idan Gabdank, Lamia Wahba, Cheryl L Smith, Mark L Edgley, Ann E Rougvie, Andrew Z Fire, Shinichi Morishita, Erich M Schwarz
Genome research, 2019 *co-first
Featured on cover
Joanna Leng, Massa Shoura, Tom CB McLeish, Alan N Real, Mariann Hardey, James McCafferty, Neil A Ranson, Sarah A Harris
PloS Comp. Bio., 2019
Riccardo Ziraldo, Massa J. Shoura*, Andrew Z Fire, Stephen D Levene*
Nucleic Acids Research, 2019 *co-corrosponding
Massa J. Shoura*, Idan Gabdank, Loren Hansen, Jason Merker, Jason Gotlib, Stephen D Levene, Andrew Z Fire*
G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 2017 *co-corrosponding
Featured by various media outlets and Science Magazine
http://genestogenomes.org/circulomes-vary-based-on-cell-type/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170911163239.htm
https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/09_june_2017?pg=16#pg16
Massa J. Shoura, RJK Udayana Ranatunga, Sarah A Harris, Steven O Nielsen, Stephen D Levene
Biophysical Journal, 2014
Massa J. Shoura, Stephen D Levene
Discrete and Topological Models in Molecular Biology pp 405-418, 2014
Featured on cover
Stephen D Levene, Stefan M Giovan, Andreas Hanke, Massa J. Shoura
Biochemical Society Transactions, 2013
Massa J. Shoura, Alexandre A Vetcher, Stefan M Giovan, Farah Bardai, Anusha Bharadwaj, Matthew R Kesinger, Stephen D Levene
Nucleic Acids Research, 2012
Featured by various media outlets
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120813115530.htm
Outreach and Science Communication
Last update: Dec 2020
Ensuring that COVID-19-related journalism is as evidence-based as possible
Did SARS-CoV-2 escape from a lab?
Face Recognition or Phrenology is a pseudoscience. Technologies based on this pseudoscience will never be accurate. Current applications of this "technology" exacerbate social injustice and has no place in a democratic society.
What's on my mind?
Updated Nov 2021
Get in touch!
Email or on Twitter
massa86@stanford.edu
@CircDNA
© 2019