Sara Tomei, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator – Associate Level
A/Director – Advanced Research Cores

Email: stomei@sidra.org
Phone: +974 40037681

Biography

Dr. Sara Tomei completed her degree in Biology and Human Evolution at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" (Italy) before earning her PhD in Experimental and Molecular Oncology from the University of Pisa (Italy). Prior to joining Sidra Medicine, she served as a Visiting Scientist at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, United States), where her interest was focused in understanding the genetic determinants of immune responsiveness in melanoma. She also worked as a Post-Doctoral Associate at Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar, where she applied genomic approaches to understand the susceptibility of the Qatari and Arab populations to multifactorial diseases, including obesity and diabetes. At Sidra Medicine (2014-present) Dr. Tomei has established a Core Facility for DNA and RNA isolation and high-throughput genomic profiling. She manages an excellent team of research specialists to serve Sidra Medicine needs and collaborative initiatives. Since 2023, Dr. Tomei is Acting Director of the Advanced Research Cores (ARC). In this role, she is overseeing the activities of the Clinical Genomics, Omics, Genomic Data Science, Flow Cytometry, Advanced Imaging, and Zebrafish Cores as well as implementing new platforms for a large-scale biorepository.
Research Interests

Dr. Tomei research interests are centered on advancing genomic technologies to drive innovation across diverse biological disciplines.

Her lab offers comprehensive services, including nucleic acid isolation, high-throughput genotyping and gene expression analysis, epigenome profiling, long-read sequencing, Sanger sequencing, and optical genome mapping. In collaboration with researchers, her team provides support in experimental design, intellectual guidance, and the development of novel methodologies for a wide range of applications.

With a commitment to facilitating interdisciplinary research, Dr. Tomei’s goal is to bridge the gap between technological advancements and biological discovery. Her objective is to foster a comprehensive understanding of genomic complexities and their implications in human diseases, with a particular focus on Qatar and the Middle East. Additionally, her team performs technical tests with the aim of improving Core facility processes.

Dr. Tomei’s research has been published in several scientific journals including Cell Research, Journal of Clinical Investigations, Scientific Reports, Molecular Oncology, British Journal of Cancer, Journal of Translational Medicine and BMC Genomics.

Furthermore, Dr. Tomei is currently leading a national effort to apply genomic technologies for the study of the prehistorical Qatari population, in collaboration with the Qatar Museums Authority and international academic centers.
Lab Members

Selected publications (†co-first, *corresponding):

Kalikiri MKR, Manjunath HS, Vempalli FR, Mathew LS, Liu L, Wang L, Wang G, Wang K, Soloviov O, Lorenz S, Tomei S*. Technical assessment of different extraction methods and transcriptome profiling of RNA isolated from small volumes of blood. Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 3;13(1):3598. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30629-5.
Manjunath HS, Al Khulaifi M, Sidahmed H, Ammar A, Vadakekolathu J, Rutella S, Al-Mohannadi MJ, Elawad M, Mifsud W, Charles A, Maccalli C, Tomei S*. Gene Expression Profiling of FFPE Samples: A Titration Test. Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2022 Jan-Dec;21:15330338221129710. doi: 10.1177/15330338221129710.
Manjunath HS, James N, Mathew R, Al Hashmi M, Silcock L, Biunno I, De Blasio P, Manickam C, Tomei S*. Human sample authentication in biomedical research: comparison of two platforms. Sci Rep. 2021 Jul 7;11(1):13982. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92978-3.

Sara Tomei, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator – Associate Level A/Director – Advanced Research Cores

Biography

Research Interests

Lab Members

Principal Investigator – Associate Level
A/Director – Advanced Research Cores