Sam F. L. Windels is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Integrative Computational Network Biology Lab at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI). He is an expert in graphlet-based network analysis, data integration, and computational biology, specializing in developing novel methods to extract biomedical insights from large-scale molecular and clinical datasets.
Dr. Windels’ research focuses on building powerful graphlet-based network descriptors for network analysis and data integration. His recent work introduces the concept of graphlet orbit adjacency to characterize network topology and examine the limitations of random walks and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) in understanding topology-function relationships. His methods have been published in top-tier journals including Oxford Bioinformatics (IF 4.4), Nature Communications (IF 14.7), and PLOS One (IF 2.3). His research has been cited 115 times with an h-index of 5.
Before joining MBZUAI, Dr. Windels completed his doctoral research at University College London (2016-2021), ranked the 8th best university globally by QS World University Rankings, under the supervision of Professor Nataša Pržulj. He has developed two open-source software packages: GRADCO for computing orbit adjacency matrices (over 1,000 downloads in November 2024) and ENRICO for vectorized cluster enrichment analysis. Dr. Windels has supervised four PhD students and has been awarded a prestigious two-year post-doctoral fellowship (€72,000) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2025-2027).
Education
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PhD in Computational Network Biology, University College London, United Kingdom (2016-2021)
- Thesis: “Graphlet-adjacency provides complementary views on the functional organisation of the cell and cancer mechanisms”
- Supervisor: Professor Nataša Pržulj
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MSc in Computing Science, Imperial College London, United Kingdom (2014-2015)
- Thesis: “Signalling pathway reconstruction by data fusion”
- Focus: Foundations of Computer Science and Machine Learning
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MSc in Business Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium (2012-2014)
- Thesis: “The resource constrained stochastic multi-project scheduling problem”
- Focus: Operations Research and Supply Chain Optimisation
- Graduated Magna Cum Laude
- Award: Prof. Dr. Beyaert Prize for most meritorious bursary student
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BSc in Business Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium (2008-2012)
- Exchange semester: Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht, Berlin
- Graduated Cum Laude
Professional Positions
Current Appointments
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), Abu Dhabi, UAE (2025 – present)
Previous Positions
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain (2021 – 2025)
- PhD Student, University College London, United Kingdom (2016 – 2020)
- Junior Data Scientist, Conundra (tech startup), Ghent, Belgium (2015 – 2016)
PhD Student Supervision
Graduated Students
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Carme Zambrana, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2021-2024)
- Topic: New methods for mining heterogeneous omics data for drug repurposing in viral diseases
- Graduated with honours, currently Postdoctoral Researcher at Barcelona Supercomputing Centre
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Mikhail Rotkevich, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2021-2024)
- Topic: Applying NLP-based methods to DNA in precision medicine
- Currently Postdoctoral Researcher at Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona
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Daniel Tello, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2021-2023)
- Topic: Developing new methods to functionally annotate network embeddings
- Graduated with honours, currently Associate Researcher in the Genomics and Therapeutics group at FIBH120
Visiting Students
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Zuqi Li, K.U. Leuven, Belgium (2023)
- Three-month secondment via TranSYS exchange program (Horizon 2020, grant 860895)
- Topic: Integrating multi-omics and imaging data for metagenomics
Teaching Experience
University College London
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Advanced Deep Learning (2nd term 2018) [Teaching Assistant]
- Responsible for marking coursework and exams
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Computer Vision (1st term 2018) [Teaching Assistant]
- Assisted students with weekly courseworks
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Web Economics (2nd term 2017) [Teaching Assistant]
- Co-responsible for design, supervision, and marking of coursework
Other Teaching
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Code Instructor, Turinglab NGO (2016-2019)
- Taught JavaScript and Python to children aged 10-14
Search for Sam F. L. Windels's papers on the Publications page