[citation needed] In 2004, Awadalla was appointed as assistant professor at the Department of Genetics and Centre for Bioinformatics (led by Bruce Weir) at North Carolina State University.
His work there included identifying potential genetic targets for vaccines to Plasmodium falciparum, the main malaria parasite.
[13][14] In 2007 Awadalla, he became an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the Université de Montréal, and in 2009 he became the Executive Scientific Director of the CARTaGENE Biobank of Québec.
[15][16] Awadalla discovered the relationship of a histone methylating factor encoded by the gene PRDM9 and child-hood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
[21][22] The Awadalla team were also the first to show the impact of air pollution on gene expression and disease among thousands of individuals in the Quebec population.