I'm a bioinformatician with a background in biochemistry and molecular microbiology, and experience in human health genomics (immunogenomics, cancer and cardiometabolic genomics), with a range of skills including (meta)genomics data analysis and integration, biomarkers discovery, genotype-phenotype association, microbiomics, transcriptomics, molecular epidemiology, population genetics, and scientific liaison. I am experienced in HPC and Cloud (Azure/AWS) computing, big data analysis frameworks (Hadoop and Spark), data management in SQL, programming in Python, Perl and R, and pipelining for sciences using NextFlow.

Research interests: My interests are in big data analytics, data management and governance, machine learning, and artificial intelligence applications in translational analyses and interpretation.

I specifically focus on microbial communities or immune-response-triggering stimuli and their interactions with host immunity. I aim to develop a comprehensive understanding of key bioinformatics tools for data analysis and integration, and translate them into basic applications for extracting insights.

As the clinical and biotechnology departments slowly embrace the use of next-generation sequencing and third-generation sequencing for diagnosis and monitoring, the ability to integrate genomics information with pathological, clinical, and environmental meta-information will facilitate the formulation of novel hypotheses and open possibilities for key discoveries, thus, unlocking several unmet epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic modalities that harness the power of technology and big data.

Recently, I am dipping my toes into Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence applications, Data Management and Analytics on the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, pipelining with Apache Airflow, RAG using Python and OpenAI, and Data Governance.

I have continually improved my liaison skills through community engagements.

A few hobbies: When not in front of a computer working, I enjoy swimming, driving around with my family, and exploring local cuisines. I love soccer and rugby too because they are sports of extreme teamwork. Languages: English (Native-Proficient), Swahili (Native).

I am working on a couple of bioinformatics tools for TGS/NGS data genomics.

• HLADiversity HLA Allele Frequency Diversity R Package.
• abo-analysis ABO blood typing using Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencing.
• 3-Tag-RNA-Seq-analysis A nextflow pipeline to do transcript counting from sequencing reads generated with Tag-Seq (v2.0).
• eplet_match-app HLA-PANDORA: A novel web-based tool to determine the presence or absence of DSA against rare HLA alleles in the era of rapid high-resolution deceased donor HLA genotyping.

• Investigating potential transmission of antimicrobial resistance in an open-plan hospital ward: a cross-sectional metagenomic study of resistome dispersion in a lower middle-income setting
• The Impact of Long-Term Macrolide Exposure on the Gut Microbiome and Its Implications for Metabolic Control
• The post-vaccine microevolution of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae
• The Contribution of Genetic Variation of Streptococcus pneumoniae to the Clinical Manifestation of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease
• Genome-wide fitness analyses of the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni in in vitro and in vivo models
• Transcriptome atlas of Striga germination: Implications for managing an intractable parasitic plant
• Deciphering the distance to antibiotic resistance for the pneumococcus using genome sequencing data
• Intestinal microbiology shapes population health impacts of diet and lifestyle risk exposures in Torres Strait Islander communities
• From microbial gene essentiality to novel antimicrobial drug targets
• Advances and perspectives in computational prediction of microbial gene essentiality
• Resolving intergenotypic Striga resistance in sorghum
• Analysis of differentially expressed Sclerotinia sclerotiorum genes during the interaction with moderately resistant and highly susceptible chickpea lines
• Genetic dissection of domestication traits in interspecific chickpea populations
• Characterization of the Theileria parva sporozoite proteome
• Lysine specific demethylase 1 inactivation enhances differentiation and promotes cytotoxic response when combined with all-trans retinoic acid in acute myeloid leukemia across subtypes
• Understanding the impact of antibiotic therapies on the respiratory tract resistome: a novel pooled-template metagenomic sequencing strategy
• Long-Term Azithromycin Reduces Haemophilus influenzae and Increases Antibiotic Resistance in Severe Asthma
• The cystic fibrosis gut as a potential source of multidrug resistant pathogens
• Report from the extended HLA-DPA1 ~ promoter ~ HLA-DPB1 haplotype of the 18th international HLA and immunogenetics workshop
• Phage-Derived Protein Induces Increased Platelet Activation and Is Associated with Mortality in Patients with Invasive Pneumococcal Disease
• Opportunistic bacteria confer the ability to ferment prebiotic starch in the adult cystic fibrosis gut

... [Full list of publications]
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