Dr. Kamal Al Nasr

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Department of Computer Science
Tennessee State University
3500 John A Merritt Blvd
Nashville, TN 37209

Office : McCord Hall 005N (Main Campus)
Email : kalnasr[at]tnstate[dot]edu
Phone : (615) 963-5848
Homepage : /faculty/kalnasr/

Areas of Interest
Structural Bioinformatics, High Performance Computing, Image Processing, Algorithms, Graph Theory.

Education
Ph.D., Computer Science, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA.
M.Sc., Computer Science, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM.
M.Sc., Computer Information Systems, Yarmouk University, Jordan.
B.Sc., Computer Science, Yarmouk University, Jordan.

Biographical Sketch
Received his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science from Yarmouk University, Jordan in 2003 and 2005, respectively. Dr. Al Nasr received another Master's degree in Computer Science from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM in 2011. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA in 2012. During his Ph.D. study, he was awarded College of Science's university fellowship on July 2010. He Joined the Department of Systems and Computer Science at Howard University, Washington, D.C. as a postdoctoral research scientist in 2012. His research interest is centered on developing efficient computational methods for protein structure prediction in de novo modeling. Specifically, he focuses on using Electron Cryo-Microscopy, high performance computing, and graph theory to design algorithms which efficiently predict the structure of proteins in 3-dimensional space.

Teaching Interests
Computer Programming, Data Structures, Bioinformatics, Discrete Mathematics, Digital Logic Design, Theory of Computation, Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, High Performance Computing, Graph Theory.

Grants

PI, "Research Initiation Award: Leveraging Protein Structure Determination - An Effective Algorithmic Approach", NSF, $300,000, 04/01/2016 to 03/31/2019.
PI, "A Computational Tool for Modeling of Protein Macromolecules Guided by Cryo-Electron Microscopy Data", NIH, $399,245, 9/30/2017 to 8/31/2020.

Selected Publications

Al Nasr, K., Ranjan, D., Zubair, M., Chen, L., He, J., "Solving the Secondary Structure Matching Problem in CryoEM De Novo Modeling using a Constrained K-shortest Path Graph Algorithm", IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB). Vol. 11, No. 2, March-April 2014, pp. 419-430.
Al Nasr, K., Liu, C., Rwebangira, M., Burge, L., He, J., "Intensity-Based Skeletonization of CryoEM Grayscale Images Using a True Segmentation-Free Algorithm", IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB). Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 1289-1298, October 2013.
McKnight, A., Si, D., Al Nasr, K., Chernikov, A., Chrisochoides, N., He, J., "Estimating Loop Length from CryoEM Images at Medium Resolutions", BMC Structural Biology, 13(Suppl 1):S5, November 2013.
Biswas, A., Si, D., Al Nasr, K., Ranjan, D., Zubair, M., He, J., "Improved Effeciency in CryoEM Secondary Structure Topology Determination from Inaccurate Data", Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (JBCB), Vol. 10, No. 3, June 2012.
Si, D., Ji, S., Al Nasr, K., He, J., "A Machine Learning Approach for the Identification of Protein Secondary Structure Elements from cryoEM Density Maps", Biopolymers, Vol. 97, No. 9, September 2012, pp. 698-708.
Al Nasr, K., Ranjan, D., Zubair, M., He, J., "Ranking valid topologies of the Secondary Structure Elements Using A Constraint Graph", Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (JBCB), Vol. 9, No. 3, June 2011, pp. 415-430.

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