Nabil-Fareed Alikhan

Bioinformatics · Microbial Genomics · Software Development

Curriculum Vitae

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Email: nabil@happykhan.comWebsite: happykhan.comGitHub: happykhanLinkedIn: nabil-fareed-alikhanScholar: profileORCID: 0000-0002-1243-0767
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Senior bioinformatician and microbial genomicist with more than 15 years' experience developing scientific software, analysing pathogen populations and delivering genomic-surveillance programmes.

30
H-Index
12,364
Citations
15
Years Experience
94,150
Software Downloads

Citation metrics verified on Google Scholar, 2 September 2026

Education

PhD in Microbiology
University of Queensland, Australia
2010–2015
Thesis: Escherichia coli virulence: a genomic approach
Supervisor: Scott Beatson
BSc (Hons, 1st Class) in Microbiology
University of Queensland
2009
Thesis: Comparative genome analysis of Escherichia coli VR50
BSc in Biochemistry & Bachelor of Information Technology
University of Queensland
2004–2008

Employment

2024 – Present

Senior Bioinformatician

The Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance (CGPS), University of Oxford, UK
Develop pathogen-genomics software, analytical methods and training for international genomic-surveillance programmes.
May 2023 – Dec 2023

Interim Head of Informatics

Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich, UK
Dec 2018 – Apr 2023

Bioinformatics Scientific Programmer

Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich, UK
2016 – 2018

Senior Research Fellow in Pathogen Bioinformatics

University of Warwick, UK
Analysed bacterial population genomics and integrated metagenomic data into large-scale surveillance infrastructure.
2014 – 2016

Research Fellow in Genomics of Bacterial Pathogens

University of Warwick, UK
Developed scientific software and data infrastructure for large-scale bacterial population analysis.
Mar 2009 – Nov 2009

Research Associate

School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Australia
System administration and technical support for Linux/MacOSX workstations. Developed automated bioinformatics pipelines for the Beatson Microbial Genomics group.
Nov 2008 – Jan 2009

Research Associate

School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Australia
Programmed software pipelines for bioinformatics, especially parallelization on high-performance computer clusters. Server administration for sharing bacterial genomics data.

Research Software & Infrastructure

PathogenWatch and AMRwatch  |  Development-team member
Built species-specific analysis containers, integrated genomic quality controls and developed automated interpretation of AMRFinderPlus outputs. · Project
QualiBact  |  Designer and developer
Created a species-aware bacterial assembly-quality framework benchmarked on 2,440,377 assemblies across 307 species. · Project
EnteroBase and GrapeTree  |  Developer and co-developer
Developed EnteroBase middleware, APIs and database design; co-developed and continue to maintain GrapeTree. · Project
BRIG  |  Creator and maintainer
Created and continue to maintain the Java desktop application for comparative-genome visualisation. · Project
RonaQC and GenomicX  |  Developer and maintainer
Develop browser-based scientific software using TypeScript, React and WebAssembly. · Project

Skills

Bioinformatics & Analysis
Microbial population and comparative genomics
Genomic surveillance and antimicrobial resistance
Genome assembly, read mapping and phylogenetics
Assembly quality control, validation and benchmarking
Biological interpretation and scientific communication
Scientific Software & Data
Python since 2009
Flask, REST APIs and SQL
JavaScript, TypeScript and React
Java and WebAssembly
Scientific web applications and biological databases
Infrastructure & Workflows
Linux and HPC since 2008–2009
Nextflow DSL2 and SLURM
Docker and Apptainer
AWS Batch and ECR
Reproducible workflows and parallel execution
Leadership, Teaching & Engagement
Bioinformatics team and service management
Cross-partner programme delivery
Mentoring, supervision and curriculum development
Practical training and invited speaking
Public-health and international stakeholder engagement