About

PhD candidate in Genetics at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand, studying RNA modifications in bacteria using Oxford Nanopore sequencing.

My background is unusual for bioinformatics. I spent years doing wet lab work—drug discovery in immunooncology, neuroscience (Alzheimer’s disease), and microbial genomics—before transitioning to computational work during my PhD. When I started investigating the E. coli epitranscriptome, I had minimal programming experience. I learned Python, Unix, and workflow development (Nextflow) because existing tools couldn’t completely analyze my data.

That transition from bench to command line taught me that the best computational biologists understand both sides: how data is generated in the lab, and how to extract meaning from it computationally. Sample prep artifacts, sequencing chemistry quirks, and experimental design decisions all show up in the data—you analyze differently when you know where the data came from.

I’ve worked as a Research Scientist at Alfred Health Hospital in Melbourne tracking antimicrobial resistance through genomic epidemiology, and on infectious disease diagnostics (SARS-CoV-2), regenerative medicine, and lab-on-a-chip research across academia and biotech.

Most recently, I worked for a year as Subject Matter Expert/Product Owner/Product Manager for a lab management and qPCR data analysis software product.

Research focus

Epitranscriptomics — Mapping RNA modifications in bacterial genomes using direct RNA sequencing

Microbial genomics — Comparative genomics, phylogenetics, pangenome analysis

Antimicrobial resistance — Genomic surveillance of carbapenem-resistant pathogens

Pipeline development — Nextflow workflows for reproducible analysis on HPC systems

Method evaluation — Benchmarking tools, optimizing workflows

Technical skills

Python (Biopython, pandas, data visualization) · Nextflow (workflow management, containerization) · Oxford Nanopore sequencing (library prep, basecalling, signal analysis) · Unix/Linux · Version control · HPC environments · Molecular biology techniques

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This blog documents what I’m learning as I work—both the solutions that work and the dead ends that didn’t. Writing forces clarity, and sharing helps others avoid the same mistakes.

Publications

Vezina, Ben, Bhargava Reddy Morampalli, Hoai-An Nguyen, Angela Gomez-Simmonds, Anton Y. Peleg, and Nenad Macesic. “The Rise and Global Spread of IMP Carbapenemases (1996–2023): A Genomic Epidemiology Study.” medRxiv (2025). doi:10.1101/2025.05.25.25328332 co-first author

Vlková, Markéta, Bhargava Reddy Morampalli, and Olin K. Silander. “Efficiency of the Synthetic Self-Splicing RiboJ Ribozyme Is Robust to Cis- and Trans-Changes in Genetic Background.” MicrobiologyOpen 10, no. 4 (2021): e1232. doi:10.1002/mbo3.1232 co-first author

Full CV: PDF