Bela Haifa Khairunisa

From Bandung, Indonesia

Previously at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) with a B.S. in Biology

Worked as Intern at Stem Cell and Cancer Institute (SCI) – PT. Kalbe Farma. I did my undergraduate final research project there with a topic ‘Study of KRAS mutant molecular profile of Indonesia colorectal and lung cancer patients in Kalbe Genomics (KalGen)’

Research interest My research focuses on microbial interaction in the environment and how it affects their metabolism. For this, I am studying the microbiome in the rumen of bovine fed with tall fescue and in stored dairy manure. In my rumen project, I am interested to know how different feeds affect the microbiome and how plant secondary metabolites perturb microbial structure and metabolism in the rumen. As in my manure project, I would like to characterize microbial communities that are responsible for the biotransformation of carbon and nitrogen. Understanding the key players, mechanistic pathways, and roles of these microbes will help to develop strategies for feed optimization, nitrogen losses prevention during manure storage, and methane emission prevention from rumen and manure. In order to answer these questions, I am employing field work and nucleic acid extraction with meta-omics data analysis using computational tools.

Advisor Biswarup Mukhopadhyay (Biochemistry)

Primary Track Life Sciences

Secondary Tracks Computer Science

Hobbies I love to cook, going to cinema, and traveling in my free time. I am especially obsessed with culinary adventures!