Azra Jaferi, Ph.D.

Science Writer and Editor, Freelance

Azra Jaferi is a freelance science writer and editor. Prior to becoming a freelancer, she held in-house editorial roles at various science and technology companies, including IBM Watson Health, the New York Academy of Sciences and Medscape. Jaferi’s work as a writer and editor has been multidisciplinary, spanning topics in the basic, translational and clinical sciences. She has a B.A. in psychology from Barnard College of Columbia University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Michigan, where her research focused on neural circuits underlying habituation to repeated stress. She did postdoctoral research in cellular neuroscience at the Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Latest Content Authored

Gender equality concept. Male and female gender icons against pink background. 3D rendering

SFARI Sex Differences Collaboration Shares Findings at Second Annual Meeting

On January 8–9, 2024, SFARI welcomed researchers to its second annual meeting of the SFARI Sex Differences Collaboration (SSDC).

Image from research by Juergen Knoblich.

Two studies using brain organoids reveal cell-type-specific changes during the early stages of human forebrain neuronal development in autism

Two studies by different research groups — one led by Flora Vaccarino and the other by Juergen Knoblich — used brain organoids derived from pluripotent stem cells of people with autism and showed how transcriptional alterations affecting certain cell types during human brain development could contribute to the early emergence of ASD.

Excessive protein degradation is identified as a new cellular pathology and a potential target for therapeutic intervention in fragile X syndrome

In a mouse model of fragile X syndrome, Emily Osterweil and her colleagues show that excessive protein synthesis drives a pathological compensatory rise in protein degradation (by the ubiquitin proteasome system), which can be targeted to correct various phenotypes including audiogenic seizures.