Dr Farzana Rahman
Faculties, departments and locations
- Faculty of Engineering, Computing and the Environment
- Department of Computer Science
- School of Computer Science and Mathematics
- Penrhyn Road
Senior Lecturer in Computer Science (Data Science)
- Email:
- [email protected]
About
I am a computer scientist working in the evolution of artificial intelligence. My work specialises in computational biology and data science using AI, Large Language Model and deep learning. In recent years, I have been involved in international collaborations with academics from several countries in America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. While my early research focus was on evolutionary genomics and proteomics, currently I am developing advanced research programmes in data science, artificial intelligence, computational pedagogy and bioinformatics with an interest to explore quantum computing research scope.
I am an open science advocate and an experienced international STEM conference organiser. I have successfully chaired/co-chaired and organised international conferences across the globe (e.g. USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Czech Republic, African and Asian Regions). Currently, I am co-chairing the Wikipedia Committee of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). I am a Member of the Royal Society of Biology (MRSB) and ISCB where I served as an elected Board of directors for a 3-year term till 2022.
I am an assistant editor of Frontiers in Genetics and reviewer of Frontiers in Microbiology, PLOS One, PeerJ, Oxford University Press and F1000Research.
Qualifications
- PhD in Computer Science (Bioinformatics)
- BEng Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Domains
- Module leader of Applied Data Programming for MSc Data Science
Qualifications
- Fellow of Higher Education Institute
Courses taught
Research project/grants:
- UKRI -Innovate UK AKT (2024): PI with Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel (Co-I) to lead AKT project on 'Integrating electrochemical air sensors with advanced AI technology to provide accurate air quality measurements for a breathable tomorrow'-£30K
- UKSPF (2024), UK Government funding: Co-I to lead with Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel (PI) a project on "Feasibility study of an AI-based model to enhance the accuracy of air pollutant measurements collected from a network of low-cost sensors." -£10K
- Research Investment Funding (RIF-2024): Co-I to lead with Professor Sarah Barman a research project on "Longitudinal Analysis of Retinal Vessel Parameters for Enhanced Disease Development Insights and Improved Risk Prediction Models"- £23K
- Research Investment Funding (RIF-2024): Co-I to lead with Dr Purva Tavri a research project on "SDGs Navigator: Pioneering AI Powered Sustainability"- £29K
- Research Investment Funding (RIF-2024): Lead with Dr Ben-Tal Oded, Dr Jarek Francis, Dr George Reid, Dr Leah Kardos a research project on "Distributed Creativity using AI: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Collaborative Processes in the Visconti Studio"- £29K
- KU First Grant (2022-2023): PI to lead a KU first grant research project on "An autonomous (ML/Deep-learning) data review process to facilitate rapid decision-making during a crisis (inspired by Pre/Post-COVID19 pandemic)"- £10K
- Women In Stem Hub (WISH) project(2023-2025): Received seed funding from University as Co-PI with Dr Purva Tavri to "Enhance research culture of women in STEM at KU" through pilot research projects. £90K
Publications:
Full list available from https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7DqMniIAAAAJ&hl=en
Scholarly affiliations
- Professional Member of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
- Member of the Royal Society of Biology (RSB)
- Member of The Women's Engineering Society (WES)- Sponsored by EPSRC
- Member, The Women's Engineering Society (WES)(2023-Present)-sponsored by the EPSRC
- Co-chair, ISCB Wikipedia Committee (2020-Present)
- Member, ISCB Publication Committee (2019-Present)
- Elected Board of Director, ISCB Board (2019-2022)
- Review Editor Frontiers in Genetics (Section: Computational Genomics) (2023-Present)
University responsibilities
- Athina Swan SAT Committee Member
- Representing School of Computer Science and Mathematics to the Faculty of ECE ethics committee
Publications
Reaping the fruits of LLM pruning: towards small language models for efficient non-coding variant effect prediction
Hegde, Megha, Nebel, Jean-Christophe and Rahman, Farzana, 2025, Genes (16), 11, Published
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on computational biology early career researchers: a global retrospective study
Eranti, Pradeep, Hegde, Meg, Al Sium, Syed Muktadir, Parra, R. Gonzalo, Kilpatrick, Alastair M., Shome, Sayane and Rahman, Farzana, 2025, PLoS Computational Biology (21), 10, Published
An educator framework for organizing Wikipedia editathons for computational biology
Sélem-Mojica, Nelly, Lubiana, Tiago, Pulido, Toni Hermoso, Gallego-Crespo, Aarón, Karakulak, Tülay, Hegde, Megha, Näpflin, Nicolas C, Anjum, Audra, Eranti, Pradeep, DeBlasio, Dan, García-Chávez, Jorge Noé, Rangel-Chávez, Cynthia Paola, Rodriguez-Gomez, Divanery, López-Ramírez, Varinia, Vázquez-Martínez, Juan, Welch, Lonnie R, Kilpatrick, Alastair M and Rahman, Farzana, 2025, Bioinformatics (41), Supplement_1pp i12-i20, Published
How AI is making affordable air pollution sensors more accurate
Nebel, Jean-Christophe and Rahman, Farzana, 2025, The Conversation, Published
Air pollution monitoring using cost-effective devices enhanced by machine learning
Colléaux, Yanis, Willaume, Cédric, Mohandes, Bijan, Nebel, Jean Christophe and Rahman, Farzana, 2025, Sensors (25), 5, Published
A deep learning framework for protein-to-metal binding prediction using protein language models
Shishir, Fairuz Shadmani, Sarker, Bishnu, Rahman, Farzana and Shomaji, Sumaiya, 2025, IEEE Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (22), 6pp 2575-2585, Published
A new 13-lipoxygenase from<i> Taxus media </i>callus is functionally linked to paclitaxel biosynthesis
Hanano, Abdulsamie, Rahman, Farzana and Murphy, Denis, 2025, Scientific Reports (15), Published
Language modelling techniques for analysing the impact of human genetic variation
Hegde, Megha, Nebel, Jean Christophe and Rahman, Farzana, 2025, Bioinformatics and Biology Insights (19), Published
Closing the computational biology 'knowledge gap': Spanish Wikipedia as a case study
Sélem-Mojica, Nelly, Karakulak, Tülay, Anjum, Audra, Pashkov, Antón, Pérez-Estrada, Rafael, Enriquez-Guillén, Karina, DeBlasio, Dan, Ferreira-Gonzalez, Sofia, Medina-Rivera, Alejandra, Rodrigo-Torres, Daniel, Kilpatrick, Alastair M., Welch, Lonnie R. and Rahman, Farzana, 2024, Bioinformatics (40), S-1, Published
Cleaning up the Big Smoke: forecasting London's air pollution levels using energy-efficient AI
Hegde, Megha, Nebel, Jean-Christophe and Rahman, Farzana, 2024, International Journal of Environmental Pollution and Remediation (12)pp 23-28, Published
ISCB Student Council Symposium 2021, a virtual global venue: challenges and lessons learned
Rahman, Farzana, Parra, R. Gonzalo, Osorio-Mogollon, Cleidy, Grentzinger, Victor, Olguin-Orellana, Gabriel J., Ayala-Ruano, Sebastian, Gupta, Shruti, Eranti, Pradeep, Grover, Aayush, Cuypers, Bart, Fatima, Nazeefa and Shome, Sayane, 2023, F1000Research (12), Published
Characterizing domain-specific open educational resources by linking ISCB Communities of Special Interest to Wikipedia
Kilpatrick, Alastair M., Rahman, Farzana, Anjum, Audra, Shome, Sayane, Andalib, K. M.Salim, Banik, Shrabonti, Chowdhury, Sanjana F., Coombe, Peter, Astroz, Yesid Cuesta, Douglas, J. Maxwell, Eranti, Pradeep, Kiran, Aleyna D., Kumar, Sachendra, Lim, Hyeri, Lorenzi, Valentina, Lubiana, Tiago, Mahmud, Sakib, Puche, Rafael, Rybarczyk, Agnieszka, Al Sium, Syed Muktadir, Twesigomwe, David, Zok, Tomasz, Orengo, Christine A., Friedberg, Iddo, Kelso, Janet F. and Welch, Lonnie, 2022, Bioinformatics (38), S1, Published
Population genetics and geometric morphometrics of the freshwater snail 'Segmentina nitida' reveal cryptic sympatric species of conservation value in Europe
Hobbs, Christopher S., Vega, Rodrigo, Rahman, Farzana, Horsburgh, Gavin J., Dawson, Deborah A. and Harvey, Christopher D., 2021, Conservation Genetics (22), 6pp 855-871, Published
Evolutionary, structural and functional analysis of the caleosin/peroxygenase gene family in the Fungi
Rahman, Farzana, Hassan, Mehedi, Hanano, Abdulsamie, Fitzpatrick, David A., McCarthy, Charley G.P. and Murphy, Denis J., 2018, BMC Genomics (19), Published
Reflections on a journey: a retrospective of the ISCB Student Council Symposium series
Hassan, Mehedi, Namasivayam, Aishwarya Alex, DeBlasio, Dan, Fatima, Nazeefa, Siranosian, Benjamin, Parra, R. Gonzalo, Cuypers, Bart, Shome, Sayane, Monzon, Alexander Miguel, Fumey, Julien and Rahman, Farzana, 2018, BMC Bioinformatics (19), Suppl 12, Published
Evolutionary and genomic analysis of the caleosin/peroxygenase (CLO/PXG) gene/protein families in the Viridiplantae
Rahman, Farzana, Hassan, Mehedi, Rosli, Rozana, Almousally, Ibrahem, Hanano, Abdulsamie and Murphy, Denis J., 2018, PLoS ONE (13), 5, Published
The ISCB Student Council Internship Program: expanding computational biology capacity worldwide
Anupama, Jigisha, Francescatto, Margherita, Rahman, Farzana, Fatima, Nazeefa, DeBlasio, Dan, Shanmugam, Avinash Kumar, Satagopam, Venkata, Santos, Alberto, Kolekar, Pandurang, Michaut, Magali and Guney, Emre, 2018, PLoS Computational Biology (14), 1, Published
Specific caleosin/peroxygenase and lipoxygenase activities are tissue-differentially expressed in date palm ('Phoenix dactylifera' L.) seedlings and are further induced following exposure to the toxin 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
Hanano, Abdulsamie, Almousally, Ibrahem, Shaban, Mouhnad, Rahman, Farzana, Hassan, Mehedi and Murphy, Denis J., 2017, Frontiers in Plant Science (7), Published
ISCB-Student Council narratives: strategical development of the ISCB-Regional Student Groups in 2016
Shome, Sayane, Meysman, Pieter, Parra, R. Gonzalo, Monzon, Alexander Miguel, Palopoli, Nicolas, White, Benjamen, Rahman, Farzana, Hassan, Mehedi, Özkeserli, Zeynep, Ashano, Efejiro, Hughitt, V. Keith, Khan, Muhammad Uzair and Murphy, Denis J., 2016, F1000Research (5), Published
Highlights from the ISCB Student Council Symposia in 2016
Jacobsen, Annika, Siranosian, Ben, Schwahn, Kevin, Conard, Ashley Mae, Aben, Nanne, Hassan, Mehedi, Fatima, Nazeefa, Hermans, Susanne M.A., Woghiren, Melissa, Meysman, Pieter, Rahman, Farzana, Jigisha, Anupama and Cuypers, Bart, 2016, F1000Research (5), 2852, Published
Biochemical, transcriptional, and bioinformatic analysis of lipid droplets from seeds of date palm ('Phoenix dactylifera' L.) and their use as potent sequestration agents against the toxic pollutant, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin
Hanano, Abdulsamie, Almousally, Ibrahem, Shaban, Mouhnad, Rahman, Farzana, Blee, Elizabeth and Murphy, Denis J., 2016, Frontiers in Plant Science (7), Published
Highlights of the 2nd Bioinformatics Student Symposium by ISCB RSG-UK
White, Benjamen, Fatima, Vayani, Fatima, Nazeefa, Das, Sayoni, Rahman, Farzana and Hassan, Mehedi, 2016, F1000Research (5), Published
Highlights from the 11th ISCB Student Council Symposium 2015
Wilkins, Katie, Hassan, Mehedi, Francescatto, Margherita, Jespersen, Jakob, Parra, R. Gonzalo, Cuypers, Bart, DeBlasio, Dan, Junge, Alexander, Jigisha, Anupama and Rahman, Farzana, 2016, BMC Bioinformatics (17), Suppl 3pp 203-205, Published
Highlights of the 1st Student Symposium of the ISCB RSG UK [version 1; peer review: not peer reviewed]
Vayani, Fatima, Hassan, Mehedi, Rahman, Farzana, Farmer, Rohit and Das, Sayoni, 2015, F1000Research (4), 154, Published
benchNGS: an approach to benchmark short reads alignment tools
Rahman, Farzana, Hassan, Mehedi, Kryshchenko, Alona, Dubchak, Inna, Tatarinova, Tatiana V. and Alexandrov, Nickolai, 2015, arXiv, Published
Highlights from the Tenth International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) Student Council Symposium 2014
Rahman, Farzana, Wilkins, Katie, Jacobsen, Annika, Junge, Alexander, Vicedo, Esmeralda, DeBlasio, Dan, Jigisha, Anupama and Di Domenico, Tomás, 2015, BMC Bioinformatics (16), Suppl 2, Published
Bioinformatic analysis of fruit-specific expressed sequence tag libraries of 'Diospyros kaki' Thunb.: view at the transcriptome at different developmental stages
Harikrishna, Jennifer Ann, Luo, Zhengrong, Sablok, Gaurav, Luo, Chun, Lee, Wan Sin, Rahman, Farzana and Tatarinova, Tatiana V., 2011, 3 Biotech (1), 1pp 35-45, Published
Data study group final report: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)
Rahman, Farzana, Burniston, Sonny, Faith, Matthew, Kriukov, Vitalii, Laidlaw, Rachael Joanne, Kalashami, Mahsa Pourhossein, Saggar, Arpita, Svenning, Asger, Trotter, Cameron, Zuo, Kaiwen, Goldmann, Katriona and Roy, David (2023). London, U.K.: [Published]
Bridging factions: a meet-up connecting diverse perspectives in human-computer interaction
Lewis, Makayla, Lengyel, Denise, Sturdee, Miriam, Neve, Paul R., Rahman, Farzana, Carter, Anna R.L. and Toselli, Mauro (2026). In: Oliver, Nuria, Shamma, David A., Candello, Heloisa, Cesar, Pablo, Lopes, Pedro, Artizzu, Valentino, Draxler, Fiona, Lopez, Gustavo, Reinschluessel, Anke V., Tong, Xin, Toups Dugas, Phoebe O., (eds.), New York, NY, U.S.: [Published]
Efficient classification of glioblastoma sub-regions using MobileNetV2
Daud, Ashley, Makris, Dimitrios and Rahman, Farzana (2026). In: Bakas, Spyridon, Dennis, Emily, Astaraki, Mehdi, Baid, Ujjwal, Conte, Gian Marco, Foltyn-Dumitru, Martha, Jiang, Zhifan, Linguraru, Marius George, Labella, Dominic, Metz, Marie-Christin, Anazodo, Udunna, de Verdier, Maria Correia, Kofler, Florian, Li, Hongwei Bran, Maleki, Nazanin, (eds.), Cham, Switzerland:pp 203-212 [Published]
Artificial intelligence-enabled retinal vasculometry at scale utilizing the UK Biobank, CLSA, and NEL DESP datasets
Welikala, Roshan, Fajtl, Jiri, Johnson, Gordon, Rahman, Farzana, Podoleanu, Razvan, Remagnino, Paolo, Freeman, Ellen E., Chambers, Ryan, Bolter, Louis, Anderson, John, Olvera-Barrios, Abraham, Warwick, Alasdair, Foster, Paul J., Shakespeare, Royce, Ganguly, Rahul, Egan, Catherine, Tufail, Adnan, Owen, Christopher G., Rudnicka, Alicja R. and Barman, Sarah A. (2024). [Published]
Sustainable AI-based prediction of air pollution levels in London
Hegde, Megha, Nebel, Jean-Christophe and Rahman, Farzana (2024). [Published]
MetaLLM: residue-wise metal ion prediction using deep transformer model
Rahman, Farzana, Shomaji, Sumaiya, Sarker, Bishnu and Shishir, Fairuz Shadmani (2023). pp 42-55 [Published]
Artificial intelligence-enabled retinal vasculometry at scale utilizing the UK Biobank, CLSA, and NEL DESP datasets
Welikala, Roshan A., Fajtl, Jiri, Johnson, Gordon, Rahman, Farzana, Podoleanu, Razvan, Remagnino, Paolo, Freeman, Ellen E., Chambers, Ryan, Bolter, Louis, Anderson, John, Olvera-Barrios, Abraham, Warwick, Alasdair, Foster, Paul J., Shakespeare, Royce, Ganguly, Rahul, Egan, Catherine, Tufail, Adnan, Owen, Christopher G., Rudnicka, Alicja R. and Barman, Sarah A.(2024). [Published]
Analysis on multi-ethnic retinal fundus image datasets of debiasing techniques in deep learning for diabetic macular edema recognition
Hegde, Meg, Rahman, Farzana, Welikala, Roshan, Fajtl, Jiri, Owen, Christopher, Rudnicka, Alicja and Barman, Sarah(2024). [Published]
MetaLLM: residue-wise metal ion prediction using deep transformer model
Shishir, Fairuz Shadmani, Sarker, Bishnu, Rahman, Farzana and Shomaji, Sumaiya(2023). [Published]