Md Azad graduated in 2022 with his doctoral degree from Texas Tech University at Dept. of Biology. In February 2023, He joined the Lau lab at BUMC with a goal in mind to expand my knowledge in the field of molecular biology. Under Dr. Lau’s supervision He is working on several projects where his works span from investigating the link between transposon on RNA splicing and gene expression in fruit flies. This study will have implications towards examining TE RNA expression in other contexts such as in animal aging and RNA expression in the human brain. They are also profiling the chromatin marks at TE loci and genome-wide during fly aging and human cell models using immunoblotting, Chip-seq, and CUT&TAG. Additionally, They are also investigating whether genetically augmenting RNAi mechanism to bolster TE suppression in Drosophila can reduce the burden of neuropathology. Towards this end, we are exploring how declining of the RNAi pathway and concomitant upregulation of TEs tied with animal aging and neuropathology.