Hussein Aliu Sule

Dr
Hussein Aliu
Sule

Doctoral Research Fellow
Universiti Putra Malaysia
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Biography
Dr. Sule Hussein Aliu is a computational biologist and doctoral research fellow at the Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He has experience in genomics, molecular diagnostics, and high-throughput sequencing across human, livestock, and aquatic pathogens. Dr. Sule holds a Ph.D. in Hydrobiology and Fisheries, with a research focus on host health surveillance and vaccine evaluation. He is currently completing a second doctorate in Aquatic Biotechnology, investigating genome-wide diversity and vaccine targets in zoonotic Streptococcus species using Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing. Dr. Sule has received a formal invitation for a postdoctoral fellowship, beginning December 2025, focusing on computational vaccinology and integrative immuno-informatics for streptococcal vaccine development in aquaculture. His current work applies reverse vaccinology, multiepitope prediction, and functional annotation pipelines (Python/R) to advance bacterial vaccine design, particularly for neglected and multi-host pathogens. He is passionate about cross-species vaccinology, genomic surveillance, and open-source tool development to support vaccine research in LMIC contexts. Dr. Sule is keen to collaborate on data-driven strategies for bacterial antigen discovery, comparative pan-genomics, and immunoinformatic analysis.
Research interests
My research centers on bacterial genomics, host-pathogen interactions, and the development of next-generation vaccines using computational approaches. I am particularly interested in reverse vaccinology and pan-genomic strategies for identifying conserved antigens in zoonotic and aquaculture-associated bacteria. My ongoing doctoral work focuses on long-read genome sequencing (Oxford Nanopore) and comparative analysis of Streptococcus agalactiae isolates across diverse hosts. I am interested in applying immunoinformatics and structural bioinformatics tools to predict, validate, and visualize multi-epitope vaccine candidates. I am also interested in the interface of antimicrobial resistance and vaccinology, especially in identifying virulence-linked immunogens within AMR gene clusters. My broader goal is to contribute to scalable, cost-effective vaccine discovery pipelines tailored for LMIC disease burdens, particularly in aquatic food systems and emerging zoonotic threats.
Projects you're working on
I am currently completing doctoral research at Universiti Putra Malaysia on the comparative genomics and immunoinformatics of Streptococcus agalactiae and S. iniae from diverse hosts (fish, bovine, human). The project integrates Oxford Nanopore sequencing, genome assembly, pangenomic profiling, and reverse vaccinology pipelines to identify broadly protective antigens for vaccine design. Concurrently, I am co-developing a systematic review framework for AI-driven vaccine discovery workflows. My postdoctoral invitation (commencing December 2025) will advance this work with multi-omics modeling of host-pathogen dynamics and in silico validation of immunogen candidates.
Discipline
Bacteriology Bioinformatics Cellular biology Challenge model development Challenge study design Clinical trials – efficacy Clinical trials – safety Epidemiology Structural biology Systems biology
Host species
Buffalo Fish Zoonoses
Pathogen
Bacteria