Samrina Rehman

Biography

Samrina studied Chemistry, followed by an MSc in Cheminformatics at the University of Manchester. She then joined Inpharmatica Ltd, a former informatics-driven drug discovery company, where her work contributed to the development of novel informatics tools. Some of these were later integrated into what is now known as ChEMBL. She pursued a PhD pioneering the application of systems biology methods to analyse Dupuytren biology. This was followed by postdoctoral research, where she applied these methods to investigate liver function changes under stress using functional genomic and metabolomics data from human embryonic stem cells, mouse and human induced pluripotent stem cells, as well as Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis samples. During her academic career, Samrina also developed mathematical models to explore chronic myeloid leukaemia, incorporating mRNA, protein, and associated miRNAs. She actively contributed to various cancer studies.

In 2014, Samrina earned a prestigious Unilever fellowship, allowing her to explore the metabolome, lipidome and transcriptome from ex vivo human scalp samples. This opportunity further enriched her knowledge and expertise in the field of systems biology specifically focusing on the investigation of signatures resulting from host-microbial interactions during inflammatory responses. During this time, she was also an active member in promoting collaborations between the UK and international communities in the fields of Systems Biology and High Performance Computing. She has played a significant role in encouraging the utilisation of supercomputers and applying Systems Biology approaches in medicine.

In 2017, she joined Evotec SE, leveraging her expertise in systems biology, functional genomics data integration, and computational methods to enhance the company's integrated drug discovery services. Since 2019, Samrina has been a key member of the Informatics teams at Medicines Discovery Catapult, providing bioinformatics support to the UK life science and drug discovery SME community. She actively contributes to immuno-oncology projects in collaboration with a leading medical research charity. Additionally, she leads an informatics collaboration focused on motor neurone disease and is involved in projects on healthy ageing, neuropathic pain and autoimmune diseases. She advocates Findable Accessible Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) data management.

Samrina holds the position of Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. She is a member of the American Dupuytren's Foundation research committee. In addition to her extensive research experience, Samrina has also received notable recognitions and sponsorships for her work. Her publications in international journals reflect her expertise in systems biology and the application of analytical and engineering principles to unravel the complexities of human diseases.