Dr. Saniya Khullar is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Human Genetics, jointly based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge (Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute). She focuses on studying immune-mediated diseases, by integrating large-scale multi-omics data and utilizing advanced machine learning methods. Her aim is to understand how genetic variants influence disease susceptibility, develop enhanced personalized genetic risk prediction models, and nominate causal protein targets for therapeutic intervention. Through this research, she seeks to help advance precision medicine by translating genetic- and protein-level insights into actionable clinical strategies tailored to individualized patient care.  

Saniya is from the U.S. and moved to Cambridge, U.K. in 2025. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics Honours and Math, with a minor in Business Administration, followed by a Master’s degree in Applied Math and Statistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. After graduation, she worked as a data scientist in D.C. and New York City.

Subsequently, she pursued a Master’s degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Data Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. She was a predoctoral fellow in the highly selective Computation & Informatics in Biology & Medicine training program for advancing precision biomedicine, and held a research affiliation with the esteemed Waisman Center known for its brain-related research. During her doctorate, she developed 2 open-source computational pipelines, SNPheno and NetREm, which leverage genetics, multi-omics data, and network/systems biology methods to map gene regulatory mechanisms linking genotype to phenotype. SNPheno identified candidate biomarkers for neuroinflammation. NetREm, presented by Saniya at leading conferences across the U.S. and Europe, has been widely well-received by the distinguished scientific community and is now being adopted by several cutting-edge research laboratories. She is also a co-inventor on a patent for human antibodies post-Covid-19 infection. Following her Ph.D., she contributed to pioneering single-cell analysis tools at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. Amongst her publications, she has contributed to major U.S. consortia (PsychENCODE2, PsychAD, SEA-AD2.0), which are shaping the field of neurogenomics and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) research today.

Over the years, Saniya has enjoyed creating a widely-used educational YouTube channel focused on advanced bioinformatics and STEM topics in areas of high need for the global community. Guided by Georgetown’s Jesuit ethos of cura personalis—care for the whole person—and service to humanity, she is deeply dedicated to mentorship and public engagement. In 2017, the U.S. White House awarded her with the prestigious Silver President’s Volunteer Service Award in recognition of her extensive community involvement and commitment to service.