Office: CCT 431
4225 University Avenue,
Columbus, GA 31907
Email: roche_rahmatullah@columbusstate.edu
4225 University Avenue,
Columbus, GA 31907
Email: roche_rahmatullah@columbusstate.edu
News
29 Apr. 2025: Awarded the Turner College Research Award, CSU
13 Jan. 2025: My research has surpassed 100 citations on Google Scholar
9 Dec. 2024: Awarded the Experiential Learning Field Trip Grant, CSU
14 Nov. 2024: Awarded the Core Course Design Institute Professional Development Award, CSU
09 Sep. 2024: New NSF ACCESS computational resources awarded for my research.
16 Aug. 2024: Participating Core Course Design Institute, CSU for Fall, 2024.
10 Aug. 2024: Joined Columbus State University as a tenure-track assistant professor.
12 Jul. 2024: Our new Biology Methods & Protocols paper published.
08 Jul. 2024: Successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation! Thanks to my family and friends, my Ph.D. supervisor, mentors and colleagues.
23 Apr. 2024: Accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Computer Science department at Columbus State University.
28 Mar. 2024 Honored to receive the 3rd place award in the Flash Talk category at the VT GPSS Graduate Research Symposium.
28 Jan. 2024: Our new Nucleic Acids Research paper published. .
14 Sep. 2023: Honored to receive Pratt Fellowship.
Teaching
Summer 2025
Spring 2025
Fall 2024
Previous Teaching Experience
Graduate Teaching Assistantship (Auburn University)
- Fall 2020
- Spring 2020
- Fall 2019
- Fall 2018
- Spring 2019
Lecturer, Eastern University
Rahmatullah Roche, Ph.D.
I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Columbus State University. My research interests include computational biology, applied machine learning, data science, and human-computer interaction. Currently, my research is primarily focused on macromolecular predictive modeling, with a specific emphasis on intra- and inter-molecular interaction prediction using cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques.
Prior to joining Columbus State University, I obtained my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech in 2024 under the supervision of Dr. Debswapna Bhattacharya. I am a recipient of the prestigious Pratt Fellowship Award, 2023-2024 at Virginia Tech.
Before pursuing my Ph.D., I completed my Master of Science in Computer Science and Software Engineering at Auburn University (2021), and my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) (2016).
I am always open to interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at advancing science and technology, particularly in applied machine learning, data science, and human-computer interaction.
I am looking for motivated undergraduate and graduate students to join my research lab.
Publications
Preprints
- Rahmatullah Roche, Sumit Tarafder, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "Single-sequence protein-RNA complex structure prediction by geometric attention-enabled pairing of biological language models",
bioRxiv, 2024
PDF • Github
2024
- Rahmatullah Roche, Bernard Moussad, Md Hossain Shuvo, Sumit Tarafder, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "EquiPNAS: improved protein-nucleic acid binding site prediction using protein-language-model-informed equivariant deep graph neural networks",
Nucleic Acids Research, 52 (5), e27-e27, 2024
PDF • GitHub - Sumit Tarafder, Rahmatullah Roche, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "The landscape of RNA 3D structure modeling with transformer networks",
Biology Methods and Protocols, 9 (1), bpae047, 2024
PDF • GitHub
2023
- Bernard Moussad*, Rahmatullah Roche*, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "The transformative power of transformers in protein structure prediction",
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 120 (32) e2303499120, 2023 [*Equal contribution]
PDF • GitHub - Rahmatullah Roche, Bernard Moussad, Md Hossain Shuvo, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "E(3) equivariant graph neural networks for robust and accurate protein-protein interaction site prediction",
PLOS Computational Biology, 19(8): e1011435, 2023
PDF • GitHub - Sutanu Bhattacharya, Rahmatullah Roche, Md Hossain Shuvo, Bernard Moussad, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "Contact-Assisted Threading in Low-Homology Protein Modeling",
Methods in Molecular Biology, 2627: 41-59, 2023
PDF - Md Hossain Shuvo, Mohimenul Karim, Rahmatullah Roche, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "PIQLE: protein-protein interface quality estimation by deep graph learning of multimeric interaction geometries",
Bioinformatics Advances, 3 (1) vbad070, 2023
PDF • GitHub
2022
-
Rahmatullah Roche, Sutanu Bhattacharya, Md Hossain Shuvo, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "rrQNet: Protein contact map quality estimation by deep evolutionary reconciliation",
PROTEINS: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 90(12): 2023-2034, 2022
PDF • GitHub - Sutanu Bhattacharya, Rahmatullah Roche, Bernard Moussad, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "DisCovER: distance- and orientation-based covariational threading for weakly homologous proteins",
PROTEINS: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 90(2): 579-588, 2022
PDF • GitHub
2021
- Rahmatullah Roche, Sutanu Bhattacharya, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "Hybridized distance- and contact-based hierarchical structure modeling for folding soluble and membrane proteins",
PLOS Computational Biology, 17(2): e1008753, 2021
PDF • GitHub • Presented at the Highlights Track of ACM-BCB 2021 -
Sutanu Bhattacharya, Rahmatullah Roche, Md Hossain Shuvo, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "Recent Advances in Protein Homology Detection Propelled by Inter-Residue Interaction Map Threading",
Frontiers Molecular Biosciences, 8: 643752, 2021
PDF
2020
-
Andrew McGehee, Sutanu Bhattacharya*, Rahmatullah Roche*, Debswapna Bhattacharya, "PolyFold: an interactive visual simulator for distance-based protein folding",
PLOS ONE, 15(12): e0243331, 2020 [*Equal contribution]
PDF • GitHub • ACM-BCB 2020 Best Poster Award
Awards and Grants
- Turner College Faculty Research Award, 2025
- PI, "Advanced computational prediction of biomolecular properties and interactions", NSF ACCESS Explore Resources, 2024-2025
- Core Course Design Institute Professional Development Award, Columbus State University, 2024
- Experiential Learning Field Trip Grant, Columbus State University, 2024
- Travel award as YSEA Finalist, 20th Annual meeting of MCBIOS, 2024
- Pratt Fellowship at Virginia Tech, 2023-2024.
- Our Work got selected for Highlight Talk in the 12th ACM-BCB conference, 2021.
- Our work has been awarded Best Poster in the 11th ACM-BCB conference, 2020.