Mike Nsubuga

Hi! I am a PhD student at the University of Bristol and a Research Fellow at the African Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics, working at the intersection of genomics, machine learning, and global health.

My research focuses on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where I apply bioinformatics and machine learning to understand the genomic determinants of resistance, virulence, and pathogen evolution. I am particularly interested in developing tools that support real-world public health decision-making, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

My PhD, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) under the GW4 BioMed2 Doctoral Training Partnership (Population Health theme) and supervised by Dr. Sion Bayliss, Prof Kristen Reyher, Prof Andrew Dowsey, and Dr. Lauren Cowley, is conducted in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). I develop machine learning approaches to forecast foodborne disease outbreaks and identify genomic mechanisms of AMR, supporting timely and data-driven public health responses.

I am currently a Visiting Researcher at Imperial College London through the GW4 MRC Broadening Horizons programme, working with Professor Leonid Chindelevitch on benchmarking machine learning methods for AMR prediction using large-scale genotype–phenotype datasets.

Previously, I completed an MSc in Bioinformatics at Makerere University under the NIH-funded EANBIT programme (Fogarty International Center), where I evaluated the cross-geographical generalisability of AMR predictive models by leveraging transfer learning to adapt UK-based datasets for clinical application in low- and middle-income countries. I have also worked as a Research Data Scientist at Bristol’s Jean Golding Institute (UK) and the Infectious Diseases Institute’s ACE (Uganda).

I am passionate about advancing innovations in global health and education, with a particular focus on leveraging data and technology to address challenges in resource-limited settings.