Dr. Kamal Rawal

Biography

Dr. Kamal Rawal has obtained his PhD in 2008 from Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He obtained his advanced postgraduate diploma in Bioinformatics in 2002 from JNU. He has completed his medical training and obtained BHMS degree from Nehru Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Delhi University. During his Ph.D., he has worked on identification and characterization of genome wide analysis of mobile genetic elements and their insertion sites through computational techniques. He has developed several automated systems to analyze genomes, generate networks of important genes involved in various human diseases and establishing involvements of signals in genetic machinery such as transcription and retro transposition. He has published papers in prestigious international journals and has been invited to deliver talks in international and national conferences. He was a research fellow of DBT (2001-2002) and Indian Council of Medical Research (2003-2006). He has been awarded travel grants from Genetic Information Research Institute California, USA, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, DBT, Cambridge Health Tech Institute, Boston, USA and DST. He has developed several bioinformatics and clinical IT tools in the area of machine learning. He integrates quantitative methods (e.g., mathematical models of network formation, statistical analysis of large observational studies, and experiments) to study social networks and other social factors that affect health. He has initiated a large scale clinical study to create interventions strategies to check the spread of obesity and related disorders such as hypertension and diabetes in society. His group is actively working in identifying drug targets in chronic diseases using integrated approaches.

Research Interest

Networks in Diseases: We construct maps of gene networks through text mining approaches, incorporate gene expression data such as microarrays in the system. The network is supplemented with clinical information derived from hospitals and clinics. Our current focus is on obesity induced disorders such as diabetes mellitus as well as coronary artery diseases. Genome Analysis and Bioinformatics:Our research in bioinformatics mainly involves functional annotation of genomes, pattern identifications, development of new algorithms and pipelines for data analysis, creation of databases, comparative genomics and experimental approaches for validating computational predictions. Clinical, Social & Big Data Research: Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the world are increasing at rapid rate, and today, nearly one in three people in the world are overweight or obese. It is sad that obese children and even adults will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. Many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma. We have launched a comprehensive initiative dedicated to solve the challenge of obesity for adults and children, so that children born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams. It is an integrated program combining nutrition, physical activities, exercises, and counselling to help people combat problems of obesity, diabetes and hypertension. We are building an interactive framework to integrate the massive amount of data accumulated from sensors, smart phones and other gadgets so as to build a smart interactive device (watch) to tackle the obesity and diabetes. These predictive systems also help ageing population to prevent falls and medical emergency in elderly population.