Ichrak Benamri
H3Africa PI: Nicola Mulder
Institution: National School of Applied Sciences of Tangier, Morocco; Institut Pasteur du Maroc, Casablanca, Morocco
Project Affiliation: H3ABioNet: a sustainable African Bioinformatics Network for H3Africa
Abstract
I’m PhD student in Bioinformatics and my PhD research project aims to apply Bioinformatics approaches to explore the genetic causes of Chlamydiae strains’ resistance to antibiotics, the project went through three steps: (i) a literature review, (ii) the development of a database for genes and mutations associated to chlamydia species’ resistance to antibiotics. (iii) an in-silico analysis of all the retrieved genes’ encoded proteins to identify the functional and structural related effects of the mutations. The results revealed that the changes observed in the proteins can affect their functions, structures and their interactions with other proteins which impact the bacteria sensitivity to antibiotics. These results would be useful for deeper exploration to understand the mechanisms of Chlamydiae resistance and enable managing the infection to avoid its complications. Our research results were published in high impact journals and presented in different conferences. I have been awarded two prizes at the 16th and 17th H3Africa Consortium Meeting.
My performance in my research project allowed me two travel fellowships to attend the H3Africa Fellows Professional Development Workshop in South Africa, the CODATA-RDA Research Data Science Summer School and the Advanced Workshopon Bioinformatics in Italy.
I acknowledge all the skills and benefits I acquired from my experience with H3Africa\H3ABioNet project and being H3ABioNet node ambassador. Indeed, my competencies have been improved in bioinformatics, data analysis and databases development by participating in courses and workshops. In addition, I had the opportunity to enhance my research profile in terms of working in my thesis project, publication productivity and participating in the conferences and meetings. Further, I’m working in many H3Africa\H3ABioNet working groups, Breast Cancer and Precision Medicine in North Africa projects and participated in several hackathons, these developed my teamwork skills. My experience as a teacher and projects’ supervisor allowed me to develop my soft skills, especially communication, management and leadership.
After obtaining my doctoral degree, I aim to join a research team in a scientific organization to illuminate my path as a bioinformatician researcher.
I want to thank Dr. Fouzia Radouani, Pr. Ahmed Moussa and the H3Africa\H3ABioNet project for their relevant support and inspirations.