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Sufyan Suleman
Sufyan Suleman

Sufyan Suleman

Postdoctoral Researcher

Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University

Affiliate Scientist, NNF Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Aarhus, Denmark

Sufyan Suleman is a computational biologist and geneticist working on the shared genetics of metabolic and psychiatric disease. He trained in biotechnology and molecular biology before moving to statistical genetics, and is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University, and an affiliate scientist at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. His doctoral work at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen, established the genetic architecture of insulin sensitivity and its links to type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, producing three first-author publications. His current postdoctoral research investigates the shared genetic architecture and biological mechanisms of obesity and ADHD, combining polygenic risk scoring, Mendelian randomisation, PheWAS, and integrative genomics across large population cohorts.

Alongside his research, Sufyan develops open-source R packages for biomarker and insulin-sensitivity calculation, contributes to widely used genomics tooling, and builds openly licensed courses in R and statistics. He has contributed to international genetics consortia including MAGIC and SpiroMeta, and his earlier research career included functional cancer genomics and developmental biology work in Oulu, Finland. He is committed to reproducible research practices and to making quantitative genetics and biostatistics methods accessible through open software and teaching.

Focus

Research themes

Metabolic Disease Genetics

Genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes, obesity and insulin resistance

Insulin Genetics

GWAS and genetic risk scores for insulin sensitivity

Psychiatric Genetics

Shared genetics of ADHD, depression and body weight

Genomics

GWAS, polygenic scoring and integrative genomic analysis

Genetic Epidemiology

Biobank-scale cohorts and consortium meta-analysis

Biomarker Software

R packages for insulin sensitivity, islet function and clinical biomarkers

Clinical Data Science

Reproducible pipelines for clinical and trial data

Open and Reproducible Science

Open-source software, courses and archived outputs

Path

Academic journey

Positions

  1. 2024-09 - Present

    Postdoctoral Researcher

    Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University · Aarhus, Denmark

    Shared genetic architecture and biological mechanisms of obesity and ADHD.

  2. 2024-09 - Present

    Affiliate Scientist

    NNF Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard · Cambridge, MA, USA

  3. 2024-04 - 2024-05

    Visiting Researcher

    Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen · Copenhagen, Denmark

  4. 2021-06 - 2024-11

    PhD Researcher

    Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen · Copenhagen, Denmark

  5. 2019-09 - 2021-06

    Research Assistant

    Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen · Copenhagen, Denmark

  6. 2018-06 - 2019-08

    Research Assistant, Vainio lab (developmental biology)

    Biocenter Oulu / Oulu University Hospital · Oulu, Finland

  7. 2017-01 - 2019-08

    Research Assistant, Wei lab (cancer functional genomics)

    Biocenter Oulu / Oulu University Hospital · Oulu, Finland

  8. 2010-09 - 2013-04

    Quality Control Inspector

    Popular Chemical Works Ltd · Lahore, Pakistan

Education

  1. 2021-06 - 2024-11

    PhD, Statistical Genetics / Genomic Physiology, Translational Metabolic Research

    Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen · Copenhagen, Denmark

    Genetics of insulin sensitivity and implications for T2D, obesity, and cardiovascular disease

  2. 2014 - 2017

    MSc, Protein Science and Biotechnology (major: Biochemistry)

    University of Oulu · Oulu, Finland

    Functional annotation of prostate cancer risk variants identifies RGS17 as a disease susceptibility gene

  3. 2006 - 2010

    BSc (Hons), Biotechnology

    Govt. College University Lahore · Lahore, Pakistan

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Toolkit

Technical skills

Programming

RPythonBash

Genetics tools

PLINKGCTALDSCSBayesRCMAGMAFUMAFLAMESMETALASSETMiXeRLAVAFINEMAPPoPSscDRSMungeSumstatsPRSiceMETASOFTSNPTESTEPACTSRVTESTGCTBSOLARKING

Statistics

Linear and logistic regressionMixed-effects regressionGeneralised linear modelsFixed and random-effects meta-analysisHeritability estimationGenetic and phenotypic correlationPolygenic risk scoringBidirectional Mendelian randomisationDrug-target Mendelian randomisationPheWASMachine-learning classification and feature selectionModel calibration and discrimination evaluation

Data resources

UK BiobankGeneration ScotlandInter99HolbækiPSYCHPGC (Psychiatric Genomics Consortium)GIANTOpen Targets Genetics

Infrastructure

SnakemaketargetstestthatQuartorenvGit / GitHubGenomeDK HPC (Aarhus)ComputeromeEsrum

Laboratory

ChIP-seq and RNA-seqCRISPR-Cas9 genome editingMolecular cloning and luciferase reporter assaysCell culture and transfectionIn vivo mouse model workImaging (confocal microscopy, flow cytometry)qPCR and Western blottingPharmaceutical GMP QC testing

Communication

Languages

English, FluentDanish, ConversationalUrdu, Native