Jason Parashuram Mohabir

👋 About Me

I was born and raised in Woodhaven, Queens, New York City, and have deep family roots in Guyana 🇬🇾.

I am a second-year PhD student in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics program at Duke University, where I work with Paul Magwene. My research is in evolutionary genomics, with a focus on fungal pathogens and genome evolution.

I studied Computer Science as an undergraduate at Columbia Engineering, where I was introduced to bioinformatics and worked on transposon-encoded CRISPR-Cas systems.

After college, I worked at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the Genomic Center for Infectious Disease. There, I contributed to research in medical mycology and vector-borne disease, and collaborated with the Guyana Ministry of Health through the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to support development of a national pathogen surveillance program.

At Duke, my research training has included rotations with:

• Paul Magwene — mobile genetic elements and population genomics in pathogenic fungi
• Amy Gladfelter — intrinsically disordered proteins and biophysical evolution in fungi
• Anne Yoder — gene flow and demographic history in mouse lemurs

🔬 Research Directions

My dissertation asks how reproductive mode influences transposable element dynamics in Cryptococcus neoformans.

Cryptococcus neoformans is a globally important human fungal pathogen with a complex reproductive biology that includes bisexual reproduction, unisexual reproduction, and clonality. My work uses this system to understand how shifts in reproductive mode shape genome evolution across both recent and ancient timescales.

My research currently focuses on three connected directions:

1. Reproductive mode and population genomic signatures
   I study how transitions in mating system, especially shifts toward unisexual reproduction, leave detectable signatures in patterns of linkage disequilibrium, genetic diversity, and recombination.

2. Transposable element dynamics in Cryptococcus neoformans
   I investigate how reproductive mode influences the abundance, turnover, and genomic distribution of transposable elements, and how these elements contribute to genome variation within and across lineages.

3. Transposable elements as markers of genome evolution
   I use transposable elements to study both ancient genomic events that helped structure the Cryptococcus genome and more recent movements that generate genetic diversity and may provide a reservoir for adaptation during clinical infection.

Broadly, my dissertation aims to connect mating system evolution, recombination, and transposable element biology to explain how genome architecture changes in a fungal pathogen.