Faramarz Valafar

Dr. Faramarz Valafar is a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at San Diego State University with joint appointments in Bioinformatics and Computer Science. As Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Laboratory for Pathogenesis of Clinical Drug Resistance and Persistence, he leads a $27M+ research program focused on TB drug resistance mechanisms. His lab develops genomic diagnostic platforms used by WHO and global health agencies.

Research bridges computational biology and clinical applications, with emphasis on next-generation sequencing for detecting resistance mutations to both conventional and novel TB drugs. The LPCDRP laboratory employs multi-omics approaches including epigenomics, metabolic modeling, and phylogenomics across international clinical sites.

Dr. Valafar founded SDSU's Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics Research Center and the CSU-wide Professional Science Master's Initiative. He maintains significant scientific output with 50+ publications in high-impact journals including Nature Scientific Reports, Nucleic Acids Research, and Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

His team has developed bioinformatics tools for heteroresistance detection, genome annotation, and resistance mutation analysis. International collaborations include partnerships with research centers in Moldova, South Africa, and the Republic of Georgia for TB strain analysis.