Elham is the Herbert & Florence Irving Associate Professor of Cancer Data Research at the Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics and Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science, Data Science Institute, and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research utilizes an interdisciplinary approach combining cutting-edge single-cell genomic technologies with statistical machine learning techniques, to characterize complex populations of interacting cells in the tumor microenvironment as well as their dysregulated circuitry.

Elham completed her postdoctoral training in the Dana Pe’er Lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Columbia University. She received a PhD in Bioinformatics from Boston University, an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.​ She is a recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, Takeda/NYAS Early-Career Innovator in Science Award, Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative SDL Award, NSF CAREER Award, Tri-Institutional Breakout Prize for Junior Investigators, NIH NCI Pathway to Independence Award, American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, and IBM Best Paper Award at the New England Statistics Symposium.​