Dr Priyank Shukla

Overview

Dr Priyank Shukla earned a First Class BSc in Biotechnology (2001-2004) from Bareilly College, MJPR University, Bareilly, India, followed by a First Class MSc in Bioinformatics (2004-2006) from University Institute of Engineering & Technology, CSJM University, Kanpur, India. Thereupon, he joined Laboratory of Genomics at Department of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Italy for 3-months as a Visiting Researcher to co-work on a Bioinformatics project aimed at full parsing of Genbank database, where he was awarded ‘DIEBA Prize for a Young Researcher working in Bioinformatics applied to Functional Genomics’.

Subsequently, he was awarded ‘Brains-in PhD Residential Scholarship’ (2007-2009) by the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bologna, Italy, and ‘100-Young Indian Researcher Scholarship’ (2009-2010) by Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), Government of Italy, to pursue a PhD in Computer Science (area of research: Machine Learning and Bioinformatics) at Bologna Biocomputing Group under the supervision of Professor Rita Casadio, where he developed Machine Learning based computational methods for prediction of disulphide bonding states of cysteine residues in proteins.

He then undertook a Postdoctoral Scientist (Bioinformatics) position at Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria (2010-2016), where he was responsible for consulting, data analysis and data management of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) based projects of Jak-Stat Signalling Consortium. His research then focused on applying NGS approaches to understand Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and Jak-Stat Signalling – linking infection, inflammation and cancer. During his Postdoc stint he received travel grants from EMBO Germany, Virginia Tech USA and OIST Japan for presenting his research work.

He was appointed to the post of Lecturer in Stratified Medicine (Bioinformatics) at Ulster University in July 2016 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in April 2024. He has served as the Associate Course Director of MSc Personalised Medicine program at Ulster University from August 2021 to December 2022, and since June 2022 he is serving as the Course Director of BSc Personalised Medicine program. His current research interests are in the fields of Personalised Medicine, Bioinformatics and Positive Pedagogy in Higher Education. As a PI/Co-PI, he has been successful in securing research funding from The Academy of Medical Sciences UK, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Innovate UK, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) UK, Department for the Economy (DfE) Government of Northern Ireland, Invest NI, Health and Social Care Research & Development (HSC R&D), Novo Nordisk, Wellcome Trust, British Council, British Science Association (BSA), British Association for International & Comparative Education (BAICE) and Advance HE.

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK, Fellow of Centre for Higher Education Research and Practice UK, Honorary Fellow of the Istituto di Studi Avanzati (Institute of Advance Studies), Italy, and was awarded thrice Ulster University’s ‘Distinguished Education Excellence Award’; first time under ‘Professional Practice Innovation’ category in 2018, second time under ‘Early Career Educator’ category in 2019, and third time under ‘Collaborative Education Excellence Fellowship’ category in 2023.

Research Interests

Scientific Research

Dr Shukla aims in developing Machine Learning (ML) / Artificial Intelligence (AI) based computational methods for in silico biomarker discovery and patients’ stratification in inflammatory diseases, cancer and multimorbidity via exploiting high-throughput omics, clinical and healthcare data.

Pedagogic Research

Dr Shukla aims in developing Positive Pedagogy based learning & teaching (L&T) methods for cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary subjects taught in a multi-disciplinary course environment in higher education (HE) sector.

Teaching Interests

Undergraduate Teaching

• BIO132: Biocomputing & Programming (Module Coordinator)
• BIO352: Biomedical Informatics (Module Coordinator)
• BIO548: Applied Bioinformatics

Postgraduate Teaching

• BIO704: Coding Skills for Biologist (Module Coordinator)

Administrative Roles

• Course Director (June 2022 – present) – BSc Hons Personalised Medicine
• Associate Course Director (Aug 2021 – Dec 2022) – MSc Personalised Medicine