I have supervised and conducted several epidemiological and clinical studies. I have established the first large-scale cohort study in the Middle East and North Africa (the Golestan Cohort Study). I have successfully secured internal and external funding for this large study and several other studies. I have been initiator of several collaborative studies with national and international institutions within the Golestan Cohort or as independent studies. As cardiovascular, cancer and other chronic diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Fars and Golestan Province and in whole Iran, I have been interested in investigating the environmental and the genetic risk factors of metabolic syndrome. For this reason, in the Pars (Southern Iran) and Golestan (Northern Iran) Cohort Studies and several other studies being conducted in my center, we have collected detailed data and biological samples from cohort subjects and patients with
CVD and cancer.