Dr Ahmed Mehdi

Senior Biostatistician

Email:
a.mehdi@qcif.edu.au

Skills:
Data integration, spatial genomics and proteomics, single-cell RNAseq, multiparametric immunophenotyping, microbiome, data analysis and visualisation.

Ahmed joined QCIF in January 2021 as a Senior Biostatistician. Currently, he has dual appointment with UQ Diamantina Institute (UQDI) and QCIF. Ahmed has a strong background in biostatistics and bioinformatics and has experience in microbiome, RNA-seq and single cell analysis.

Ahmed has produced non-traditional research outputs in terms of software packages, curated databases and web applications to help research communities utilise his methods. These include NucImport (doi: 10.48610/7bfd689), dLOCALMotif,(doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bts654) PredictPA (doi: 10.48610/a53d449), E.PATH (doi: 10.48610/ee3f1f2), E. PAGE (doi: 10.1101/2022.01.03.474848), GLACIER, WebCytometry, GSAO (doi: 10.48610/2c1d352) and scLOCATE.  

At UQDI he became an integral part of the planning, delivery and analyses of existing and novel analytical tools for several data rich programs in the institute. He undertook data modelling for clinical trials of Rheumavax and DEN-181, and published this in the high-ranked, Science Trans Med.

He established two computational statistics and bioinformatics programs:

  1. uncovering predictors of immune checkpoint blockade
  2. developing screening tools to predict T1D at-risk children.

He has significant experience contributing to the peer review of NHMRC grant applications. To date, he has reviewed more than 100 grants. He has supervised or mentored 20 PhD/MSc/BSc/Hons students.  

At QCIF, he continues his work of the last seven years providing biostatistics support to researchers at UQDI. He also supports QCIF’s other Members and partners as well as help deliver QCIF’s biostatistics training program.  

Research Interests 

  • Integrating multidimensional single-cell data 
  • Developing annotation tools for single-cell RNAseq data 
  • Spatial transcriptomics and proteomics 
  • Bayesian Networks 

Qualifications 

  • PhD – University of Queensland, 2013 
  • MSc Engineering – University of Engineering and Technology (Lahore, Pakistan), 2008 
  • BSc Engineering – University of Engineering and Technology, (Lahore, Pakistan), 2006