Candidate Statement – Mohammad Asif Khan

• Career Summary:
  I graduated from the leading global university, the National University of Singapore (ranked 8th in the QS World University Rankings and 1st in QS Asia University Rankings 2023), where I completed my Bachelor of Applied Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. My undergraduate degree was in biotechnology, with a minor in scientific computation and multimedia communication, and I went on to specialize in bioinformatics/data science for my MSc and PhD studies, given its pivotal role in the growth of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Bioinformatics was then already thought of as a bedrock of current and future biotechnology (http://go.nature.com/2A8sxy5). Upon completing my PhD in 2010, I was accepted as a full-time faculty at the world-renowned, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), USA. Not long after (2011), I was selected by JHU as one of the pioneer team members to settle in Malaysia as part of a collaboration with the then-newly established Perdana University (PU), under the auspices of the Public-Private Partnership Unit of Malaysia’s Prime Minister’s department. I was given the mandate to help develop basic and applied sciences (genomics/immunology/bioinformatics/data science) skills and research capacity at PU, while maintaining a position and linkages with JHU. I went on to become the founding Director of the Centre for Bioinformatics (2014) and later the founding Dean of the School of Data Sciences (a first in Malaysia) at Perdana University. From January 2020, while still a faculty member at Perdana University, I was appointed as a Consultant Researcher and Professor at Beykoz Institute of Life Sciences and Biotechnology (BILSAB), Bezmialem Vakıf University (BVU), Istanbul, Turkey. This was in conjunction with the prestigious award of the “International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers”, which included a research grant, by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). Most recently, since January 2023, I joined the University of Doha for Science and Technology (UDST) in Qatar as a Professor and Associate Dean for the College of Computing and Information Technology.
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  Since completing my PhD in 2010, I have been involved with research, education, service development, and organisational setup attracting a total funding of approximately USD 4.1 million, with direct management of approximately USD 2.4 million. My research interests encompass biological data warehousing and the application of bioinformatics and data science to the comprehensive study of viruses, modeling of immune responses, and the design of specific targets for vaccines and drugs. These are within the framework of integrative biology towards a better understanding of genotype to phenotype relationship. Thus far, I have authored/co-authored 90 peer-reviewed research/review journal articles, conference articles/abstracts, book chapters, and books, with over 80 posters and 80 plus oral presentations at numerous scientific platforms, covering both fundamental and translational aspects of my research interests. My research contributions have attracted more than 2,950 citations, with an H-index of 26 (http://bit.ly/khanam). In 2018, I served as the Section Editor for the Applications Volume of a three-volume Encyclopaedia on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (The A to Z of Bioinformatics), published by Elsevier, with 334 peer-reviewed article contributions from experts around the world. I am now serving as one of the Editors-in-Chief for an update, the second edition of the Encyclopaedia. Over the years, I have been involved in the development of several novel bioinformatics methodologies, tools, and specialized databases, and currently have three patents granted. I strongly think that a research mission is incomplete without the accompanying efforts to educate the next generation, provide outreach services to the community, practice operational efficiency through administrative excellence, and integrate academic entrepreneurship.

  My teaching experiences (2006-24) have been in the basic and applied sciences (genomics/immunology/bioinformatics/data science), imparting to undergraduate/postgraduate students at the National University of Singapore (~1500 students over the years), medical and bioinformatics students at Perdana University, Malaysia (~200 students), to medical and non-medical students in Turkey (> 50), and now to computing and IT students at UDST in Qatar. I had mentored research projects of more than 50 students (45 BSc, 3 MSc and 5 PhD) before formally supervising my own students. I am currently directly supervising five PhD students and have successfully graduated 15 students (11 MSc and 4 PhD). I have also led the curriculum development of three undergraduate, five postgraduate programmes and contributed to the development of one diploma programme (3 BSc, 1 Dip, 1 PgD, 3 MSc and 1 PhD). I also served as the core member of the Postgraduate Studies and Programme Committee at Perdana University and UDST. Further, as the former Dean of School of Data Sciences, Perdana University, I represented the School in academic matters as a member of the Senate, the highest academic authority of the University.

  My services to the scientific community include as a reviewer for numerous journals, conferences, and funding agencies, and have donned various important roles in the organisation of many (> 80) local and international bioinformatics conferences, meetings, colloquiums, and workshops. I am a long-standing Executive Committee member and currently a third term elected President of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNET; https://www.apbionet.org), one of the oldest (25 years) and notable bioinformatics organisations in the Asia-Pacific region. Additionally, I am an elected Executive Board member of the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET; https://www.mygoblet.org). I also serve as the Vice President of the Association for Medical and Bio-Informatics, Singapore (AMBIS; http://www.ambis.org.sg), for which I am the immediate past President. Additionally, I am a co-founder and Deputy Chair of the Malaysian Bioinformatics Network (MyBioinfoNet). I have been honoured as a life member of the Indonesian Society for Bioinformatics and Biodiversity (ISBB; https://mabbi.id) and the Bioinformatics Club for Experimenting Scientists (BIOCLUES; http://bioclues.org; India’s largest bioinformatics society). I am currently leading a global initiative in addressing bioinformatics grand challenges with the creation of the Bioinformatics Grand Challenges Consortium (BGCC; https://www.apbionet.org/bgcc), aimed to foster international collaboration to think proactively and critically about the grand challenges in the field and propose solutions; our first effort was on bioinformatics education and training grand challenges, published in the prestigious Nature Biotechnology (https://rdcu.be/djhh8). I have founded nine data science interest (DSi) groups, both global and local, with a total of more than 500 members.

  Administratively, I have been able to garner support, organise teams and build functional entities around specific visions and missions. In 2011, affiliated with Perdana University, I was then the only bioinformatics faculty when the university was formally inaugurated. I started building my own team to deliver on the mandate to develop data science/bioinformatics skills and research capacity, and together we went on to achieve beyond expectations, not just in research, but also in education and services. Given our efforts and achievements, Perdana University soon recognized bioinformatics as one of its key thrust areas, and in May 2014 established its own Centre for Bioinformatics (PU-CBi), as a larger platform to foster our growth. Pleased with our growth and seeing the opportunities presented by developments in bioinformatics and big data, Perdana University unanimously agreed with our proposal to establish the School of Data Sciences (PUScDS), which subsumed the existing PU-CBi and saw the formation of a new Centre for Computing (PU-CC). Despite our limited manpower, the school had come a long way from our humble beginning in 2011, considering the following achievements till end of 2022: 85+ publications; 200 plus professional presentations (oral and poster); close to 35 local / international grants; developed a diploma programme, three undergraduate degree programmes, and four (4) postgraduate degree programmes; generated revenue from consultancy services for School’s Service Unit; signed more than a dozen MoUs/MoAs with strategic professional bodies from both academia and industry; and 100 plus local and international events organized directly or in partnership (workshops, seminars, symposiums, colloquium, conferences, public lectures, open house, and roadshows).

  Academic entrepreneurship is key to catalyse the potential of universities to contribute to new innovative advancements and economic developments. Noting the significant revenue generated from the Services Unit of the School, the Board of Governors (BoG) of Perdana University, in March 2016, agreed to spin off the Service Unit of the School as a start-up company. The BoG unanimously approved the proposal, and the start-up Alterquo Pte. Ltd. was formally launched in 2018, for which I was the Founding CEO. The company has since then provided services to numerous local and international organizations, largely assisting in meeting on-demand client needs of addressing research problems of high dimensional data. During my secondment at BVU, Turkey, I was involved in the set-up of a clinical informatics start-up company, BioAct.

  In summary, I have a strong desire to achieve and have the grit to strive towards excellence, with emphasis on the pivotal and synergistic balancing of the five interconnected facets of a knowledge enterprise – fundamental and translational research, life-long education, community services, administrative excellence, and academic entrepreneurship. I was able to replicate the success at PUScDS with the Big Data and Bioinformatics Lab at BILSAB-BVU, and plan to do the same at UDST. I look forward to contributing my experience and passion to nurture and grow the next generation of a knowledge enterprise. I believe my experience, coupled with my network, drive, and energy to seek solutions, prepare me for the challenges ahead.

• Contributions to APBioNET:
  

As a member of APBioNET since 2006, I have actively participated in the organization of its flagship International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), initially serving only as Programme Committee (PC) member, tasked to review papers submitted to the various journal supplements of the conference. Later on, I assisted as part of the local organizing committee for InCoB2009, held in Singapore. Also in 2009, I took up a more active role with the organization and served as APBioNET Deputy Secretariat, helping out with the activities of the Secretariat based in Singapore, under the guidance of Prof. Tan Tin Wee.

This experience highlighted the greater role that I could play in assisting the leadership of APBioNET. Towards this, I took up the office bearer position of the Secretary upon successful election as an ExCo member for the period 2010 to 2012. During this period, besides actively managing the broad Secretary portfolio, I also took lead in various outreach activities, such as organizing bioinformatics educational workshops in Brunei and Singapore, continued as PC member for InCoB, chaired the APBioNET Travel Fellowship Selection Committee for InCoB, played a key role in establishing and implementing the APBioNET-Overseas Research Advancement Programme (ORAP; starting with India), assisted with the development of bioinformatics pedagogy methods (published in peer-reviewed, international journals; see publications section of CV), and contributed to the efforts BioDB100 initiative, aimed at gathering 100 bioinformatics databases that are Minimum Information About a Bioinformatics investigation (MIABi)-standards compliant under one interoperable framework (http://incob.apbionet.org/incob11).

With the desire to do more for the community, I accepted the nomination by the ExCo to be the Honorary Director for APBioNET Limited, incorporated in Singapore in 2012 as a public limited liability company to ensure quality, sustainability, and continuity of APBioNET’s mission to advance bioinformatics across the region and beyond. My ExCo membership was also renewed for another two years (2012-2014) due to strong support from the electorate, and I took up the proposed office bearer position of the Treasurer to dovetail with my responsibilities as the Honorary Director of APBioNET LTD in order to effectively facilitate the initial setup of this legal entity. As the treasurer and working with the only other Honorary Director, Prof. Tan Tin Wee, I helped streamline the role of the legal entity, in particular the financial aspects, such as managing of accounts, completion of audits, filing of taxes, and implementation of policies to ensure financial health and sustainability of the organization.

Re-elected for the period 2014-2016, I challenged myself with a completely new portfolio, not just for myself, but also the first for APBioNET, as Vice President (Corporate). This office bearer position was created to serve as the multi-purpose interface between the APBioNET, its legal entity, and external parties. This role was facilitated by my continuation as also the Honorary Director of APBioNET LTD. I consider the period 2014-2016 as my most productive years in giving back to APBioNET and the community:

• Helped establish APBioNET Malaysian Secretariat with full-time staff to support and grow the various activities of the organization. Relying on voluntary contributions was turning out to be non-sustainable, especially with the formation of the legal entity. Setup in Malaysia helped keep manpower cost low.

• Negotiated the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Perdana

University of Malaysia. As a result, Perdana University offered to host the

APBioNET Malaysian Secretariat at no cost.

• Managed the day-to-day operations of the Malaysian Secretariat Staff

• Established an arrangement between the Malaysian Secretariat and Perdana University Centre for Bioinformatics (PU-CBi) to organize joint outreach bioinformatics activities (4 workshops, 1 seminar, and 2 conferences) within the country and the region. In collaboration with PU-CBi, Malaysian Secretariat generated enough revenue during its first year of establishment (2014/15) to cover operation costs in the second year (2015/16).

• Worked with the APBioNET Malaysian Secretariat to:

o        revive the APBioNET Newsletter, with the release of 2016 issue and served as the Editor-in-Chief.

o        setup the APBioNet Membership Registration page, with assistance from the ExCo Treasurer

o        create an APBioNET Brochure for promotional purposes.

o        establish APBioNET’s presence on all major social network platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram).

o        keep the APBioNET website and social network platforms up-to-date and alive with new content.

o        manage the APBioNET mailing list.

o        take advantage of the luminaries invited for InCoB by doing short interview videos to be posted on the YouTube channel. This was first done for GIW/InCoB2015, and will be done for future InCoBs.

• Conducted feasibility study on the idea of a “Super Conference” proposed by VP (Conference)/President whereby InCoB would partner with several other major bioinformatics conferences in the region every alternate year. Towards this, I surveyed a number of sites in Japan as the venue for the first Super Conference; the visit was kindly sponsored by the Japanese National Tourism Organization (JNTO).

• Served as a Programme Committee Member of GIW/InCoB2015, and now for InCoB2016.

• Trained and assisted the ExCo Treasurer with the preparation of APBioNET LTD budget, management of accounts, completion of audits and filing of tax.

• Instrumental in the establishment of Indonesia’s first national society for bioinformatics—The Indonesian Society for Bioinformatics and Biodiversity.

• Wrote an article on APBioNET with the other office bearers, which was published in the peer-reviewed, international journal of PLoS Computational Biology

• Worked with GIW/InCoB2015 and InCoB2016 organizing comm. to assist with the travel fellowship selection and disbursement of funds.

• Launched a joint internship programme between Perdana University School of Data Sciences and APBioNET.

I was successfully elected again for the period 2016-2018, however, this time I did not take up any office bearer position, paving the way for others to contribute at that level. Nonetheless, as an ExCo member, I continued supporting APBioNET’s mission. This was in the following key notable areas:

• Led the creation of a Data Science eXchange initiative (DSXi; http://dsxi.perdanauniversity.edu.my) in partnership with Perdana University. The aim was to promote data science through three key activities: public lecture series, roadshows, and an annual data science carnival. The initiative proved successful with the various activities conducted. Details are available on the website (link provided).

• Further built the APBioNET-Perdana University Internship programme. To date we have had more than 50 interns who benefited from this programme.

• Served as a Programme Comm. member for InCoB2017 and 2018.

• Assisted the InCoB2017 and InCoB2018 organizing comm. with the travel fellowship selection, disbursement of funds, and providing secretariat support.

• Represented APBioNET at the Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning,

Education and Training (GOBLET)

• Along the way, I was appointed as “Acting Deputy VP (Education)”

In the year 2018-2024-, I was trusted with the opportunity not to just contribute to the exco, but also lead it as the President of APBioNET. I used the opportunity to improve the interaction between the exco by having at least one meeting per month, which we have succeeded in executing, barring one or two months. This allowed us to address various issues and better plan the running of the organisation. Key developments include:

•       regular meetings among exco 

•       setup of APBioNET conference planning comm.

•       student ambassador programme

•       setup a bioinformatics grand challenge consortium (BGCC) and concluded defining the grand challenge in bioinformatics education and training as the first outcome from the consortium, which has been published in Nature Biotechnology journal, with an article on BGCC in Briefings in Bioinformatics.

•       oversaw the running of InCoB 2019, for the first time in Jakarta; InCoB 2020, held virtually for the first time; InCoB2021, as a hybrid event, hosted by China; and InCoB2022 as a virtual event for the first time in Saudi Arabia; InCoB2023 as an in-person event in Brisbane, Australia; and in 2024 as part of the first Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Joint Conference.

•       oversaw InSyB2019 (Punjab, India), InSyB2020 (Guntur, India), InSyB2021 (Istanbul, Turkey), InSyB2022 (Virtual), InSyB2023 (Virtual), and now InSyB2024 (Uttar Pradesh, India). I hosted InSyB2021 and it broke many past InSyB records. 

•       Improvements to APBioNET website and social media channels by working closely with the Secretariat

•       started a new initiative, APBioNETTalks

•       got APBioNET Student Council approved

•       lead various new policies and updates to existing policies

•       MoU signed with new partners

•       Successfully completed the running of back-to-back 14 workshops as part of the Bioinformatics Workshop Fiesta 2020/22

•       Initiated a research consortium

•       initiated the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics joint conference, a seed idea initiated in 2015, which we delivered upon.

•       Initiated the APBioNET Awards

Proposed future contributions to APBioNET:

If I get elected as part of the ExCo again, I aim to push further the bioinformatics agenda:

•        Education grand challenge

•        Staff enrichment program

•        Strengthening the research network (local or Asia-Pacific wide)

•        Grant applications involving APBioNET as a consortium

•        Promoting the APBioNET Research Awards

•        Career development path

•        APBioNET publications

•        Drive membership