Sema Sgaier

Sema K. Sgaier is a scientist, global health expert, and documentary photographer. Sgaier’s expertise includes molecular biology, genetics, genomics, neuroscience, epidemiology, disease surveillance, monitoring & evaluation of programs and policy development.

Sgaier was the first to fine tune and apply the technique of Genetic Inducible Fate Mapping (GIFM) to understand how the complex 3D cerebellum develops from early-undifferentiated neuronal cells of the anterior hindbrain. With Tim Yu and colleagues, she discovered that mutations in the gene WDR62 causes microcephaly.

At the Center for Global Health Research, Sgaier designed and developed the Sample Registration Health Check-Up Survey to study the underlying risk factors of various diseases in India. She has published on the epidemiology of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.

Since 2008, Sgaier is a Program Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Sgaier manages HIV prevention programs in India and Kenya, and has been engaged in wide ranging portfolios such as Monitoring & Evaluation and immunization. She has worked closely with the Indian National AIDS Control Program to assist in the design of their program and strengthen their analytic efforts.

She has been selected as a “Rising Talent”by the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society.

Sgaier was born in 1975 in Tripoli, Libya to a Libyan father and Turkish mother. Sgaier studied Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey) where she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in 2005, ranking first of her class. Sgaier later obtained her Masters in Art in Neuroscience from Brown University in 1999 and Masters in Science and Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Cellular and Molecular Biology (Developmental Genetics) in 2005 from New York University. She conducted her Postdoctoral training in Human Genomics in the Lab of Dr. Christopher A. Walsh at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. She is the recipient of New York University, Brown University fellowships and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center fellowships.

Sgaier studied Documentary Photography at the International Center of Photography.

Research articles

1. Arora, P.; Nagelkerke, N.; Sgaier, S. K.; Kumar, R.; Dhingra, N.; Jha, P. (2011). "HIV, HSV-2 and syphilis among married couples in India: Patterns of discordance and concordance". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 87 (6): 516–20. doi:10.1136/sextrans-2011-050203. PMID 21865404. 
2. Sgaier, S. K.; Mony, P.; Jayakumar, S.; McLaughlin, C.; Arora, P.; Kumar, R.; Bhatia, P.; Jha, P. (2010). "Prevalence and correlates of Herpes Simplex Virus-2 and syphilis infections in the general population in India". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 87 (2): 94–100. doi:10.1136/sti.2010.043687. PMID 21059842. 
3. Yu, Timothy W; Mochida, Ganeshwaran H; Tischfield, David J; Sgaier, Sema K; Flores-Sarnat, Laura; Sergi, Consolato M; Topçu, Meral; McDonald, Marie T; et al. (2010). "Mutations in WDR62, encoding a centrosome-associated protein, cause microcephaly with simplified gyri and abnormal cortical architecture". Nature Genetics. 42 (11): 1015–20. doi:10.1038/ng.683. PMC 2969850. PMID 20890278. 
4. Cheng, Y.; Sudarov, A.; Szulc, K. U.; Sgaier, S. K.; Stephen, D.; Turnbull, D. H.; Joyner, A. L. (2010). "The Engrailed homeobox genes determine the different foliation patterns in the vermis and hemispheres of the mammalian cerebellum". Development. 137 (3): 519–29. doi:10.1242/dev.027045. PMC 2858911. PMID 20081196. 
5. Sgaier, S. K.; Jha, P.; Mony, P.; Kurpad, A.; Lakshmi, V.; Kumar, R.; Ganguly, N. K. (2007). "PUBLIC HEALTH: Biobanks in Developing Countries: Needs and Feasibility". Science. 318 (5853): 1074–5. doi:10.1126/science.1149157. PMID 18006727. 
6. Chen, Li; Jha, Prabhat; Stirling, Bridget; Sgaier, Sema K.; Daid, Tina; Kaul, Rupert; Nagelkerke, Nico; International Studies of HIV/AIDS (ISHA) Investigators (2007). Siegfried, Nandi, ed. "Sexual Risk Factors for HIV Infection in Early and Advanced HIV Epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Systematic Overview of 68 Epidemiological Studies". PLoS ONE. 2 (10): e1001. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001001. PMC 1994584. PMID 17912340. 
7. Sgaier, S. K.; Lao, Z.; Villanueva, M. P.; Berenshteyn, F.; Stephen, D.; Turnbull, R. K.; Joyner, A. L. (2007). "Genetic subdivision of the tectum and cerebellum into functionally related regions based on differential sensitivity to engrailed proteins". Development. 134 (12): 2325–35. doi:10.1242/dev.000620. PMC 2840613. PMID 17537797. 
8. Nagelkerke, Nico JD; Bernsen, Roos MD; Sgaier, Sema; Jha, Prabhat (2006). "Body mass index, sexual behaviour, and sexually transmitted infections: An analysis using the NHANES 1999-2000 data". BMC Public Health. 6: 199. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-6-199. PMC 1559603. PMID 16884541. 
9. Atit, Radhika; Sgaier, Sema K.; Mohamed, Othman A.; Taketo, Makoto M.; Dufort, Daniel; Joyner, Alexandra L.; Niswander, Lee; Conlon, Ronald A. (2006). "Β-catenin activation is necessary and sufficient to specify the dorsal dermal fate in the mouse". Developmental Biology. 296 (1): 164–76. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2006.04.449. PMID 16730693. 
10. Sgaier, Sema K.; Millet, Sandrine; Villanueva, Melissa P.; Berenshteyn, Frada; Song, Christian; Joyner, Alexandra L. (2005). "Morphogenetic and Cellular Movements that Shape the Mouse Cerebellum". Neuron. 45 (1): 27–40. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.12.021. PMID 15629700. 

Book chapters

1. Ramakrishnan, A., Sgaier, S.K., Alexander, A. Scaling HIV Prevention through Partnerships – The Avahan Experience in India. Innovative Health Partnerships- The Diplomacy of Diversity. World Scientific Pub Co Inc, 2011.
2. Sgaier, S.K. Berenshteyn, F., Joyner, A.L., Miller, S., Song, C. Villanueva, M.P. The Concept of Fate Through the Lens of Genetics, in Beesley, P., S. Hirosue, J. Ruxton, M. Tränkle, C. Turner Eds. Responsive Architectures: Subtle Technologies. Riverside Architectural Press, Cambridge, 2006 pp. 26–29