PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Natasa Przulj

Also known as Nataša Pržulj

Natasa Przulj is a computer scientist whose research connects graph theory and network science with AI methods for multi-omic precision medicine. She earned degrees in computer science and mathematics at Simon Fraser and Toronto, published a geometric model of protein interaction networks in 2004, and held academic posts at UC Irvine, Imperial College London and UCL. She won the 2014 Roger Needham Award, joined Academia Europaea in 2017, and was an ELLIS Fellow in 2025. As of October 2026, she leads MBZUAI's Integrative Computational Network Biology Lab, where her group develops AI methods for multi-omics and precision therapeutics.

Born
1973
Works
215
Citations
11,824
h-index
48
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1997–2005

    Degrees in computer science

    She earns a first-class B.Sc. in computer science and mathematics at Simon Fraser University in 1997. She completes an M.Sc. in computer science at the University of Toronto in 2000 and a Ph.D. there in 2005.

  2. 2004

    A geometric interactome model

    With her Toronto supervisors Derek Corneil and Igor Jurisica, she publishes the paper “Modeling Interactome: Scale-Free or Geometric?” on protein-protein interaction networks in 2004. Her Ph.D. research applies graph theory to computational biology, and her thesis proposes an improved geometric random-graph model for those networks.

  3. 2005–2016

    Faculty roles in California and London

    She works as an assistant professor at UC Irvine from 2005 to 2009. At Imperial College London, she is an assistant professor from 2009 to 2012 and an associate professor from 2012 to 2016. She becomes a full professor at UCL in 2016.

  4. 2014

    A Roger Needham Award

    She wins the BCS Roger Needham Award in 2014 while serving as a reader in Imperial College London's Department of Computing.

  5. 2017

    Academia Europaea membership

    She joins Academia Europaea in 2017.

  6. Since 2019

    Research professor at BSC

    She becomes an ICREA Research Professor in the Life Sciences–Integrative Computational Network Biology department at Barcelona Supercomputing Center in 2019.

  7. 2025

    An ELLIS Fellowship

    In 2025, she is an ELLIS Fellow and a member of the ELLIS Unit Barcelona.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and lab leader

    She leads MBZUAI's Integrative Computational Network Biology Lab. Her team develops AI frameworks and machine-learning techniques for multi-omics data fusion and network science, applying them to precision medicine and therapeutic discovery.

Career

  1. Since 2024Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial IntelligenceLab Lead
  2. 2019–2025Polytechnic University of CataloniaICREA Research Professor
  3. 2019–2025Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
  4. 2016–2026University College LondonFull Professor
  5. 2009–2016Imperial College LondonAssistant Professor, Associate Professor
  6. 2005–2009University of California, IrvineAssistant Professor

Education

  1. 2005University of TorontoPh.D.
  2. 2000University of TorontoM.Sc.
  3. 1997Simon Fraser UniversityB.Sc.

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. A global genetic interaction network maps a wiring diagram of cellular function2016 · Science · 1,238 citationsWith Olga Troyanskaya
  2. Evidence for Network Evolution in an Arabidopsis Interactome Map2011 · Science · 893 citations
  3. Biological network comparison using graphlet degree distribution2007 · Bioinformatics · 837 citations
  4. High-Throughput Mapping of a Dynamic Signaling Network in Mammalian Cells2005 · Science · 726 citations
  5. Modeling interactome: scale-free or geometric?2004 · Bioinformatics · 706 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Polytechnic University of Catalonia. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Polytechnic University of Catalonia. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Academy of Europe: CV ae-info.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Natasa Przulj's Web Page cs.toronto.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Modeling Interactome: Scale-Free or Geometric? arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. ICREAs Fitxa - ICREA icrea.cat. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Academy of Europe: Przulj Natasa ae-info.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Natasa Przulj - 2014 Roger Needham Award winner bcs.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Spotlight on Natasa Przulj ellis.eu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. PrzuljLab.bio przuljlab.bio. Checked 21 October 2026.