About
PhD candidate in Genetics at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand, studying RNA modifications in bacteria using Oxford Nanopore sequencing.
My background is unusual for bioinformatics. I spent years doing wet lab research across academia and industry before transitioning to computational work during my PhD. I had minimal programming experience when I started. I learned Python, Unix, and Nextflow along the way. That transition from bench to command line taught me that the best computational biologists understand both sides: how data is generated and how to extract meaning from it. Sample prep artifacts, sequencing chemistry quirks, experimental design decisions—these all show up in downstream analysis. You interpret differently when you know where the data came from. This perspective helps me catch issues that specialists in only one domain often miss. Toward the end of my PhD, I worked as a Research Scientist at Alfred Health in Melbourne, tracking antimicrobial resistance through genomic epidemiology. Most recently, I spent a year as a Subject Matter Expert and Product Owner for a qPCR data analysis platform—a hybrid role bridging biology, product strategy, and customer-facing work. I found I genuinely enjoyed the business side: managing stakeholder expectations, coordinating across teams, translating between technical and non-technical audiences. My experience spanning academia and industry helped me thrive in that space.
Research focus
Epitranscriptomics — Mapping RNA modifications in bacterial genomes using direct RNA sequencing
Microbial genomics — Comparative genomics, phylogenetics, pangenome analysis
Antimicrobial resistance — Genomic surveillance of carbapenem-resistant pathogens
Pipeline development — Nextflow workflows for reproducible analysis
Method evaluation — Benchmarking tools, optimizing workflows
Technical skills
Python (Biopython, pandas, data visualization) · Nextflow (workflow management, containerization) · Oxford Nanopore sequencing (library prep, basecalling, signal analysis) · Unix/Linux · Version control · HPC environments · Molecular biology techniques
Publications
Bhargava Reddy Morampalli (co-first author), Vezina, Ben, Hoai-An Nguyen, Angela Gomez-Simmonds, Anton Y. Peleg, and Nenad Macesic. “The Rise and Global Spread of IMP Carbapenemases (1996–2023): A Genomic Epidemiology Study.” Nature Communications 17, 183 (2026). doi:10.1038/s41467-025-66874-7
Vlková, Markéta, Bhargava Reddy Morampalli (co-first author), and Olin K. Silander. “Efficiency of the Synthetic Self-Splicing RiboJ Ribozyme Is Robust to Cis- and Trans-Changes in Genetic Background.” MicrobiologyOpen 10, no. 4 (2021): e1232. doi:10.1002/mbo3.1232
Full CV: PDF