Khader Ghneim, MSc, MBA
Dir, Projects
Pathology Advanced Translational Research Unit
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Khader Ghneim is a Bioinformatics and Data Scientist with 10+ years of experience. Khader obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Florida. Upon completion of his Master’s degrees at Georgetown University, Khader began his career as a bioinformatics analyst at VGTI-FL then served as a senior bioinformatics scientist at Case Western Reserve University. Khader joined PATRU at Emory in 2021 and is currently the Director of Projects where he manages the bioinformatics group pipeline development, data analysis, curation, storage and distribution. Khader is also the Deputy Director of the Bioinformatics and Integrated Systems Biology (BISB) core for the Emory/Georgia Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center (TRAC).
Khader’s research utilizes a comprehensive Systems Biology approach to analyze and combine multi-omic datasets into integrative models that correlate with disease (Cancer, HIV) outcome and/or response to therapy. Khader’s experience includes but is not limited to the analysis of transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomic, and high dimensional flow cytometry data-sets and the use of machine learning and meta-analysis algorithms. His current research is focused on understanding the host immune response to HIV infection and advancing the “HIV cure”, identifying underlying mechanisms that lead to the pathogenesis, establishment and persistence of the virus, and assessing broadly neutralizing antibody, system serology and vaccine immune responses.
PUBLICATIONS
Felipe ten Caten, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Pathology Advanced Translational Research Unit
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Felipe ten Caten earned his B.S. in Biology from the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil, in 2011, and his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, in 2017. His doctoral research focused on small RNAs in Halobacterium salinarum, an extremophilic archaeon used as a model organism in Systems Biology. Using molecular biology techniques and high-throughput data (RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, and microarrays), he characterized the transcriptome and demonstrated the presence of intraRNAs—novel coding transcripts that overlap canonical genes—in this species and other members of the Archaea domain.
During his postdoctoral fellowship at USP, Dr. ten Caten applied his bioinformatics expertise to investigate the human transcriptional response to arboviral infections, including Dengue and Chikungunya, with a focus on identifying prognostic biomarkers linked to severe disease outcomes. He also contributed to COVID-19 research by analyzing clinical and laboratory data to better understand how factors such as age, sex, and disease severity influence disease progression.
In 2021, Dr. ten Caten joined the Pathology Advanced Translational Research Unit (PATRU) at Emory University, where he expanded his research into the immune response to infectious diseases using a Systems Immunology framework. Currently serving as an Associate Scientist at PATRU, his work focuses on the interplay between host and environmental factors—such as substance use disorder—in shaping the HIV reservoir, as well as on mechanisms of inflammation and immunosenescence in individuals with Down syndrome. His expertise includes data visualization, exploratory data analysis and integrative analysis of multidimensional datasets, including metabolomics, flow cytometry and multimodal single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data.
Meghana Reddy Dropathi, MS
Bioinformatics Analyst, Sr
Pathology Advanced Translational Research Unit
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Meghana Reddy Dropathi, M.S., Senior Bioinformatics Analyst obtained a Master of Science degree in Bioinformatics from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. During her time there, she studied computational biology, data engineering, and advanced bioinformatics methodologies. She also earned her Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology. Previously, she investigated epitranscriptomic modifications and methylation patterns at The Institute for Experiential AI, where she developed comprehensive MeRIP-seq pipelines and implemented AI models for enhanced methylation analysis. She currently works as a Senior Bioinformatics Analyst in the Sekaly Lab at Emory University School of Medicine, where she joined in 2025, focusing on pathology research applications and single-cell data analysis. Her research interests encompass computational genomics, transcriptomics analysis, epigenetics, and immunology. She specializes in single-cell genomics, working extensively with single-cell data to understand cellular heterogeneity and regulatory mechanisms. Her current research interests include immunological mechanisms, epitranscriptomic modifications, cancer genomics, and the development of bioinformatics tools and pipelines for high-throughput sequencing data analysis. She focuses on RNA-seq analysis and the integration of multi-omics data to understand disease mechanisms and cellular regulatory processes.