Dr. Khalid Ouararhni received his master’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris in 2002, and his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine of Paris XI University in 2007. His Ph.D. dissertation was on the role of epigenetics in cancer. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at IGBMC (Institute of Genetic, cellular, and Molecular Biology) in Strasbourg, where he focused on elucidating the role of nuclear receptors in oncogenesis. During his post-doctoral training, one of his seminal works was the discovery of the interconnection between TRIM proteins and retinoic acid receptors and the relevance of such interconnection suppressing murine hepatocellular carcinoma.

In 2011, Dr. Ouararhni joined the epigenetic research group at IGBMC. He started leading an important project on the role of histone variants and methylation in gene regulation and genome integrity. He made several significant breakthroughs in the field of epigenetics. The scientific community highly cited his contribution as it helped understand the molecular mechanisms underlying histone variants deposition. He worked extensively on the isolation and purification of histone variant complexes and has studied their role using state of the art molecular and cell biology techniques.

In 2017, Dr. Ouararhni joined the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), research institute under Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), as the Manager of the Cancer Research Center. From 2017 to 2019, besides his role as a lab manager, he has been working closely with the genomics core team; he contributed to many genomics projects and helped the team in trouble shooting technical issues.

He was appointed as acting manager of the genomics core in 2019, and subsequently as genomics core manager in 2020. Dr. Ouararhni has extensive experience in library preparation for NGS applications, as well as the ability to optimize protocols and troubleshoot issues. He also has extensive experience operating numerous genomics platforms, such as:

• Next Generation platforms
• Array systems: IScan system and Nanostring system.
• Automated Liquid HandlingPlatform: Bravo system (Agilent)
• Genetic Analyzers systems.

In addition, he was engaged in many research programs such as Infectious Diseases Inter-Disciplinary Research Program and QF-AntiCoV2 study following COVID-19 vaccination program. Furthermore, he developed an in-house PCR-based assay for SARS Cov-2, an in-house bead-based RNA / DNA extraction method, and an In-house COVID-19 RT-PCR kit.

His work has been published in 5 stars scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Structural Mol. Biol., Gene s & Development, Nature communications, and PNAS.

My main research activity was on the role of histone variants and their deposition machinery in the epigenetic control of human genome activity. With a team of collaborators, I made seminal discoveries in the mechanism of histone variant deposition. I worked extensively on the isolation and purification of histone variant complexes and have studied their role by using the state of the art molecular and cell biology techniques. Among others, I have isolated and characterized the histone variant CENP-A deposition machinery and identified DAXX as a novel histone chaperone responsible for the replication-independent deposition of H3.3. In addition, I have identified ANP32E and YL1 as the main histone chaperones involved in H2A.Z dynamics around promoters and provided the molecular basis for H2A.Z recognition by these two histone chaperones. My work was published in the top journal including Nature, Nature Struct Mol Biol, Nature communication, Genes&Dev, and PNAS. In many of these studies, I served as an equal first-author-level contribution.