Bilal Sharif

Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Palaeogenetics · Lead Computational Biologist, GenomeVault
bilal.sharif@su.se · bilal.bioinfo@gmail.com · bilal@genomevault.net · +46 73 491 5502 · Stockholm, Sweden

Computational biologist working in computational biology, palaeogenomics, and population genetics. I develop bioinformatic pipelines to recover and analyse highly degraded ancient DNA from deep-time samples, studying the ecology, population dynamics, and evolutionary history of different species, and I am interested in metagenomic approaches to ancient environments and the integration of multi-omics data to reconstruct past ecosystems.

Education

2019 – 2024 Vienna, Austria
PhD
University of Vienna
Natural Sciences: Molecular Biology
  • Thesis: Genetic Exploration of Iron Age and Roman Equids, and New Zealand’s Feral Horses
  • Supervisors: Elmira Mohandesan, Katrin Schäfer
2016 – 2018 Beauvais, France
MSc
UniLaSalle Beauvais
Plant Breeding
2011 – 2015 Faisalabad, Pakistan
BSc
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad
Plant Breeding and Genetics

Experience

2024 – present Stockholm, Sweden
Postdoctoral Researcher (75%)
Centre for Palaeogenetics
Developing bioinformatic pipelines and conducting population genetic analyses on various species, including Homotherium latidens and mammoths.
2024 – present Stockholm, Sweden
System Administrator (25%)
Centre for Palaeogenetics
Developing and maintaining a web-based SQL database to store and manage sample metadata.
2026 – present Remote / Stockholm, Sweden
Lead Computational Biologist
GenomeVault
Leading computational biology work at GenomeVault.
  • [Add responsibilities and highlights for this role.]
2018 – 2018 Montpellier, France
Master Thesis
CIRAD
Supervisor: Hana Chaïr.

Grants and Awards

  • 2025, Stiftelsen Längmanska kulturfonden (SEK 35,000)
  • 2018, Erasmus Mobility Grant, Ghent University, Belgium
  • 2017, Erasmus Mobility Grant, AXIA TOHUM A.Ş., Antalya, Turkey
  • 2016, Master’s Scholarship, Institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle, Beauvais, France

Conferences

  • 2025, Poster, European Society for Evolutionary Biology
  • 2021, Poster, Ancient Biomolecules of Plants, Animals, and Microbes
  • 2020, Poster, evolVienna

Teaching

  • 2023, Practical course on aDNA methods (2023W, 300123-1 UE), University of Vienna. Lecture on Introduction to Bioinformatics.
  • 2021, Topics in Paleogenomics (2021S, 300184 UE), University of Vienna. Lecture on Introduction to Bioinformatics.

Skills

Genomics & Data Analysis: Palaeogenomics, Population genetics, Metagenomics, NGS data analysis
Programming Languages: Python, R, Bash, Groovy, C, SQL
Workflows & Tools: Nextflow, SLURM, SRA Toolkit
Reproducibility & Version Control: Singularity, Apptainer, Docker, Conda, Mamba, Git
Data Visualization: Python (matplotlib/seaborn), R (ggplot2)
Web Development: WordPress, PHP, HTML

Languages

English: Fluent
Urdu: Native
Punjabi: Native

References

Prof. Love Dalén — Professor in Evolutionary Genomics, Centre for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm University. Email: love.dalen@zoologi.su.se
Dr. Tom van der Valk — Research Group Leader, Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History. Email: tom.vandervalk@nrm.se