Professional Experience
Graduate Research Assistant (Dissertation)
Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA
PI: Loren Gragert, PhD (Center for Biomedical Informatics & Genomics)
Improving kidney transplant outcomes by using molecular-level HLA matching in allocation (NIH R01 DK139240)
- Developed HLA matchability metrics using a 2.1M+ genotype NMDP reference dataset with high-resolution nine-locus HLA genotypes and population-weighted frequencies.
- Modeled HLA matchability-adjusted allocation points to prioritize candidates with rare HLA genotypes, promoting balanced access in deceased-donor kidney allocation.
- Deployed the HLA Matchability Calculator as a public Django web tool on AWS EC2 (transplanttoolbox.org/matchability), making the metric openly available to the transplant community.
- Collaborated with the Center for Surgical and Transplant Applied Research (CSTAR) at NYU Langone Health to model matchability-adjusted allocation policy in the OASIM organ-allocation simulation.
Automating the OPTN UNet match run using high-resolution HLA typing imputed from intermediate-level deceased donor HLA typing data
- Developed an HLA typing simulator with Immucor (Werfen) to map high-resolution typing into intermediate-level allele possibilities (IPD-IMGT/HLA Database v3.60).
- Built imputation pipelines within the simulation framework to resolve intermediate-level typing to high resolution across all nine loci, leveraging a 10M+ population high-resolution HLA haplotype-frequency dataset, expectation-maximization, and linkage-disequilibrium patterns; calibrated performance for predicted genotypes and residual ambiguity.
- Developed a Probabilistic Offer Filter across 1M+ simulated offers, automatically comparing each candidate's allele-level antibody profile against the donor's predicted high-resolution typing on a sliding scale of donor-specific antibody tolerance.
- Eliminated the manual review that HLA laboratory directors must perform when donor typing reaches the UNet match run as ambiguous intermediate-level PDF rather than electronically captured data, a bottleneck that prolongs cold ischemia time and increases the risk of organ nonuse.
- Developed automated Python data-extraction pipelines converting raw vendor instrument HLA typing output (PDF reports, RT-PCR SureTyper XML, nine-locus LinkSeq XML) into structured, analysis-ready Genotype List (GL) Strings; deployed by the UPenn Kamoun group to extract intermediate-resolution typing across multiple laboratories for validating the Probabilistic Offer Filter against real clinical data.
- Validating the Offer Filter against historical clinical transplant data in a multicenter study with Dr. Malek Kamoun's group at UPenn.
- Built two retrieval-augmented generation systems, HLA-RAG (immunogenetics) and ILC3-RAG (innate lymphoid cells), over 6,000+ curated articles, exposed to LLMs via Model Context Protocol for rapid, citation-grounded literature review.
- Authored the computational-methods and results sections, prepared tables and figures, and verified numerical accuracy across manuscripts; two first-author and one co-authored manuscript in advisor final review for the American Journal of Transplantation.
Research Collaborator
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Collaborator: Kristen Nordham, MD (Department of Surgery)
Performed post-review statistical revision for an EAST multicenter trauma trial (J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2025). Methods: generalized linear mixed models with center random intercept, DAG-based covariate selection, counterfactual causal mediation, IPTW, MICE, E-value sensitivity, and nine prespecified sensitivity analyses.
Research Collaborator
NYU Langone Health, New York, NY
Collaborating PI: Michal A. Mankowski, PhD (Department of Surgery, NYU Grossman School of Medicine)
Provided HLA Matchability metrics and the Monte Carlo policy-mechanism foundation for the PICL-based deceased-donor kidney allocation framework. Simulated via SRTR Organ Allocation Simulator (OASIM) using evolutionary graph algorithms; balances medical urgency and population-informed organ access without compromising HLA compatibility.
Research Collaborator
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Collaborating PI: Professor Malek Kamoun, MD, PhD (Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine)
Built three production-grade clinical HLA typing ingestion pipelines: a PDF-to-structured-data extractor; an RT-PCR SureTyper XML-to-GL-String parser; and a nine-locus LinkSeq XML-to-GL-String parser. Pipelines bridge simulated and real-world validation of the Probabilistic Offer Filter and are now in production use by the Kamoun group for multi-laboratory deceased-donor typing extraction.
Graduate Research Assistant
Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA
PI: Professor Jay Kolls, MD (Center for Translational Research in Infection and Inflammation, CTRII)
Therapeutic role of LIF-Fc against multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae ST258 C4 lung infection in a murine model
- Designed and executed a murine pulmonary infection study evaluating LIF-Fc as a host-directed therapeutic against multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae ST258 C4, benchmarked against IL-22-Fc and vehicle controls.
- Compared lung and spleen bacterial burden by CFU across two immunocompromised models, Rag2⁻/⁻ Il2rg⁻/⁻ and FK506-treated wild-type C57BL/6 mice.
- Quantified LIF-Fc–mediated innate activation by qPCR, ELISA, and bacterial flow cytometry (BugFACS), measuring hepatic and pulmonary acute-phase responses (SAA1, SAA2, C3) and downstream STAT3 signaling.
- Demonstrated significant reduction in lung infection burden versus controls with marked SAA1/SAA2 induction, more pronounced in liver than lung, supporting LIF-Fc as a host-directed therapeutic candidate.
Isolation, enrichment, and functional characterization of pulmonary ILC3s in murine models
- Developed enrichment and sorting workflows for rare lung-resident ILC3s in wild-type, IL-22 reporter, and Rag2⁻/⁻ mice.
- Defined ILC3 IL-22 and IL-17A responses to pulmonary infection by integrating flow cytometry, CITE-seq, RNA-seq, qPCR, and ELISA-based cytokine quantification.
- Generated and leveraged a Ccr7-Cre × Icosl^fl/fl model to interrogate ICOS-dependent regulation of ILC3 biology in the lung.
Graduate Rotations (Three Labs)
Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA
PI: Hong-Wen Deng Lab; Yi-Ping Li Lab; Jay Kolls Lab
Three first-year graduate rotations across complementary computational and immunology labs: • Hong-Wen Deng Lab: machine learning for biomedical data. • Yi-Ping Li Lab: scRNA-Seq analysis with Seurat and VISION. • Jay Kolls Lab: T-cell metabolism via scRNA-Seq of immunized mice (the rotation that led to my dissertation work in the Kolls and Gragert labs).
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology, Khwaja Yunus Ali University (KYAU), Bangladesh
- Supervised undergraduate research projects, advising students on experimental design, data interpretation, and scientific writing.
- Taught Virology, Immunology I and II, Genetic Engineering, and Microbial & Molecular Genetics (lecture and laboratory practical); designed and moderated course examinations.
- Led a newly established department as Chair, providing its academic and operational leadership; served on curriculum and examination committees.
- Directed an independent research line alongside a full teaching load: antibiotic-resistance surveillance of clinical isolates (MRSA, E. coli) at a rural tertiary-care hospital, yielding several peer-reviewed publications. Clinical microbiology research program conducted with Prof. Dr. Abdullah Akhtar Ahmed, Head of Microbiology, Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College Hospital (KYAMCH).
Senior Lecturer
Department of Microbiology, Khwaja Yunus Ali University (KYAU), Bangladesh
- Mentored junior teaching staff joining the department; supervised laboratory instruction and student assessment.
- Taught General Microbiology, Basic Biochemistry, Microbial & Molecular Genetics, and Immunology II; set and moderated examinations.
Lecturer
Department of Microbiology, Khwaja Yunus Ali University (KYAU), Bangladesh
- Taught Microbial Ecology, Basic Techniques in Microbiology, Bacteriology, and Environmental Microbiology.
- Built lecture content, laboratory protocols, and assessments for the department's new BS microbiology program, introducing students to aseptic technique, culture and identification methods, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
Research Officer
icddr,b (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), Matlab Health Research Centre & Virology Lab
PI: Dr. Md. Khalequzzaman (Emeritus Scientist, Enteric and Respiratory Infections, Infectious Diseases Division, icddr,b). Direct supervisor: Md. Mustafizur Rahman, PhD.
- Coordinated GCP vaccine-immunogenicity clinical trials (Rotarix, JE).
- Conducted norovirus and adenovirus molecular surveillance; performed viral genome sequencing, alignment, and phylogenetics.
- Co-authored a Journal of Medical Virology publication.
Graduate Research Student
Virology Laboratory, icddr,b, Bangladesh
Supervisor: Md. Mustafizur Rahman, PhD; Senior Director, Infectious Diseases, icddr,b. Characterized respiratory human adenovirus in Bangladeshi children through viral genome extraction, qPCR, and phylogenetic analysis; deposited 74 sequences in NCBI GenBank (Accession KP268083–KP268156). This work formed the basis of my M.Sc. thesis at the University of Dhaka.