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• 2026 - Present: Professor, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences (BABS), ����������
• 2024 - Present: Deputy Director (Science), 91ɫ��Ƭ AI Institute, 91ɫ��Ƭ
• 2023 - 2026: Associate Professor, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences (BABS), ����������
• 2022 - 2024: Deputy Director, 91ɫ��Ƭ Data Science Hub (uDASH), ����������
• 2017 - 2022: Senior Lecturer, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences (BABS), 91ɫ��Ƭ Sydney
• 2013 - 2017: Research Fellow, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney
• 2011 - 2013: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Toronto, University Health Network and Ontario Cancer Institute
• 2007 - 2011: PhD Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the University of Illinois in Chicago

Brief Biography:

Professor Fatemeh Vafaee is a globally recognised leader in Biomedical Artificial Intelligence, serving as the Deputy Director (Science) of the 91ɫ��Ƭ AI Institute, a flagship university-wide institute with more than 400 academic staff. She is the Scientific Lead of the 91ɫ��Ƭ Biomedical AI Laboratory (Vafaee Lab) at 91ɫ��Ƭ and the architect of Med-Tech.AI, a multi-institutional graduate program advancing AI-enabled medical technologies.

Fatemeh’s research sits at the intersection of AI, biotechnology, and clinical translation, with more than 15 years of experience in developing machine learning, multi-omics, and deep learning technologies for precision medicine. Her work spans the full innovation pipeline, from fundamental algorithmic advances to validated platforms, clinical trials, commercial diagnostics, and patents. She has developed AI-enhanced blood-based cancer detection models, large-scale biomedical knowledge graphs, multi-modal drug discovery pipelines, and domain-robust deep learning frameworks for biomarker and therapeutic discovery.

She is also the Founding Director of �����Ի� Co-founder of , a 91ɫ��Ƭ spin-out focused on agentic AI systems, knowledge-graph–powered discovery, and integrative bioinformatics solutions for personalised healthcare and accelerated therapeutics. Her translational portfolio includes partnerships with healthcare, biotech, and pharmaceutical sectors across Australia and internationally.

Dr Vafaee received her PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the School of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA (2011), followed by 2 multidisciplinary postdoctoral fellowships on computational biomedicine at the University of Toronto, University Health Network (2011 – 2012), and at the University of Sydney, Charles Perkins Centre (2013 – 2017).

Research Contributions:

Dr Vafaee has a strong track record of multidisciplinary research leadership and industrial engagement. Her research has attracted >$19M for over 20 research projects and industrial partnership grants, including prestigious schemes of NHMRC Ideas (2025), Cooperative Research Centre Project (CRC-P, 2019), Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF, 2020, 2021, 2025), ARC Discovery (2021), and NHMRC Development (2021), and Next-Generation Graduate Program, CSIRO/Data61 (2023).

She has co-authored over 80��publications (i10-index = 45, M-index = 1.9, Google Scholar). Her work appeared predominantly in high-impact journals (95% Q1, >65% Top 10 percentile, >50% senior/lead author) such as Nucleic Acids Research (IF:19.160)*, Briefing in Bioinformatics x3 (IF:13.994)*, IEEE Trans on Cybernetics (IF:19.118)*, Bioinformatics (IF:6.931)*, Artificial Intelligence Review x2 (IF:9.588)*, IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (IF:7.021), Precision Oncology (IF:10.123), Cell & Bioscience (IF:9.597)*, Cancer Science (IF:6.716)*, Nature Methods (IF:47.990), Nature Communications (IF:17.694), Alzheimer’s & Dementia (IF:16.655); * indicates the corresponding authorship—demonstrating her research leadership and substantive contribution in methodological changes.

Key translational and commercial outcomes

• Clinical diagnostics: Led the AI/ML development for BREASTTEST Plus, Australia’s first AI-enabled blood test for breast cancer; commercially launched by BCAL Diagnostics (03/2025)

• Drug discovery: Developed AlgoraeOS, an AI platform that accelerated drug discovery under a $1.3 M research contract with Algorae Pharmaceuticals, reducing discovery timelines from years to months and identifying 24 novel drug targets that progressed to preclinical validation.
• Commercial ventures: Founded OmniOmics.AI, a consultancy that led to the creation of , a proprietary biomedical knowledge-graph platform (91ɫ��Ƭ spin-out)

Awards and Recognitions

• 2025: 91ɫ��Ƭ Vice-Chancellor’s Award (Highly Commended) for Excellence in Industry-Engaged HDR Supervision

• 2024: Recognised among ‘’ by AI Magazine

• 2024: Featured as an # by AInspirations

• 2023: Winner of Award in Health. The most prestigious awards for women in AI in the Asia-Pacific region ()

• 2023: Runner-up of Women in AI Asia-Pacific Innovator of the Year (media release)

• 2023: Mid-Career Research Excellence Award by Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society

• 2023: External Engagement Impact Award – Highly Commended by 91ɫ��Ƭ Faculty of Science

Collaborations:

Prof Vafaee’s research was founded on large-scale, multidisciplinary collaborations spanning academia, industry, healthcare, and government. She led national initiatives and partnered with more than 20 industry and clinical organisations (e.g., BCAL, Algorae Pharma, CSIRO, BreastScreen NSW, Differentia Bio, Tolemy Bio) to accelerate translation. Her academic collaborations extended across major universities and institutes in Australia and abroad (e.g., 91ɫ��Ƭ, USYD, Monash, MQU, UTS, UMelb, WEHI, Garvan, Harvard University, UIUC, and U Toronto), as well as hospitals such as St Vincent’s, RPAH, and St George, among others.

Community Engagement:

A/Prof Vafaee was committed to shaping public and policy discourse on AI in healthcare. She was an invited speaker at high-profile policy forums, including the NSW Parliament Seminar�����Ի� Royal Society of NSW & Learned Academies Forum (2024). Her research and perspectives were regularly featured in national media outlets such as The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News, Capital Brief, Channel 7, Nine Radio, contributing to public understanding of AI ethics, innovation, and its real-world health applications.

Supervision and Mentoring

Dr Vafaee has supervised 20+ HDR students. She founded and led the Med-Tech.AI Next Generation Graduate Program, a $2M national CSIRO/Industry-funded initiative training market-aligned PhD talents (x11). She actively championed an inclusive research culture through her role as a mentor for the 's program and as a former Executive Committee Member of the 91ɫ��Ƭ Women in Research Network.

Governance and Executive memberships:

• Member of , NCI, Australia (2019 - 2022)
• Member of Executive Committee, School of BABS, 91ɫ��Ƭ (2018 - 2020) 
• Bioinformatics Coordinator, School of BABS, 91ɫ��Ƭ (2018 - 2020) 
• Member of Executive Committee in , 91ɫ��Ƭ (2018 - 2021)

Editorial Activities:

• Associate Editor of Artificial Intelligence Review, 2017 – Now (IF: 9.588, top 5% in AI), handled 250+ manuscripts.
• Editorial Board of Journal of Cancers, 2021 – Now (IF: 6.639),
• Advisory Board of Journal of Patterns, by Cell Press, 2021 – Now
• Reviewer of multiple top-tier journals and grant agencies – e.g., Briefing in Bioinformatics (IF: 13:994), Bioinformatics (IF: 6.937), Cancers (IF: 6.639), Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology (IF: 8.168), Artificial Intelligence Review (IF: 9.588), IEEE Trans on Neural Networks & Learning Systems (IF: 14.26). I also review funding agencies, e.g., ARC (DP and DECRA).