Rana Nizar Khalifa

Rana Nizar Khalifa is a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at the University of Oxford from Sudan, pursuing an MSc in Genomic Medicine. She is a member of Reuben College.

Rana is a biomedical engineer with a first-class honours degree in Biomedical Engineering (Pre-Medical Track) from Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates. She is also a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.

Her academic interests focus on genetic research and targeted therapies. She previously interned at the Genetics and Genomics Center at the United Arab Emirates University, where she gained hands-on experience in DNA and RNA extraction and metabolomic data analysis. As a visiting researcher in Dr Kohli’s lab at Khalifa University, she worked on culturing mesenchymal stem cells for use in precision therapies.

Motivated by the potential of genetic variation to transform healthcare, Rana is particularly interested in comparing the genetic profiles of individuals with complex diseases to healthy counterparts. Her goal is to identify disease-associated variants and use bioinformatics tools to inform targeted treatment approaches. She believes that the factors secreted by mesenchymal stem cells can be harnessed to precisely address disease mechanisms.

Rana advocates for an integrated multi-omics approach—combining genomics, proteomics and metabolomics—to provide a more complete understanding of complex diseases and enhance the effectiveness of treatments.

Following her studies at Oxford, Rana aims to deepen her expertise in multi-omics research and inspire a new generation of African biomedical researchers dedicated to improving healthcare outcomes across the continent.