Fahim obtained his first degrees in biotechnology from the University of Tehran, Iran. He brought together his interests in the life and physical sciences with a move into synthetic biology and to the USA. During his PhD at MIT, Fahim developed multiple foundational platforms for molecular recording and computation in living cells. He introduced the concepts of DNA-based molecular recording and analog memory, and invented SCRIBE (Synthetic Cellular Recorders Integrating Biological Events), a modular and scalable platform for recording signaling dynamics into the cells own genomic DNA.
Fahim’s successful academic record and research excellence have been recognized by multiple awards including the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, Nat. L. Sternberg Graduate Thesis Prize, Helen Peake Carr Research Prize, the Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation, and a Schmidt Science Fellowship.
As a Schmidt Science Fellow, Fahim worked across two labs, with George Church at Harvard and Ed Boynton at MIT. He aimed to further advance molecular recording technologies and apply them to the study of the brain. The focus on neurology took Fahim back to matters close to his heart ensuring his work had the greatest potential of a long-term impact. Now, Fahim continues his work as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT and CTO/Co-Founder of March Therapeutics focused on addressing mitochondrial genetic diseases.