Life Science Groups

Get to know the members of the HIDSS4Health Life Science Groups

Alexander Schug
KIT

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Alexander Schug
Affiliation: Multiscale Biomolecular Simulation

The Schug lab develops and applies methods for molecular simulation and analysis of genomic data to address questions in biological and medical research.

 

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Anne-Kristin Kaster
KIT

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Anne-Kristin Kaster
Affiliation: Institute for Biological Interfaces 5

Our aim is to obtain genomes from new bacterial and archaeal taxa with no sequenced representatives and providing direct link information between cell’s phylogenetic and metabolic markers by matching phylogeny and function. We unravel novel metabolisms, ecophysiology and mechanisms of energy conservation among uncultured microorganisms and in addition investigating minimal genome requirements and syntrophic interactions as well as genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity among cells, cell-to-cell variations, horizontal gene transfer and evolutionary pressure.

 

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Christof M. Niemeyer
KIT

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Christof M. Niemeyer
Affiliation: Institute for Biological Interfaces (IBG-1)

The Niemeyer team is focussing on the development of biointerfaces for applications in fundamental cell biology, such as cell signaling and development.

 

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Daniel Durstewitz
UNI HD

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Daniel Durstewitz
Affiliation: Theoretical Neuroscience

The Durstewitz group develops statistical machine learning methods at the mathematical and algorithmic levels, with a focus on nonlinear time series analysis, nonlinear dynamical systems, and generative recurrent neural networks. Our main application domains are functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological data, as well as smartphone-based ecological momentary assessments, in psychiatry and neurology.

 

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Daniel Hübschmann
DKFZ

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Daniel Hübschmann
Affiliation:
Pattern Recognition and Digital Medicine, Heidelberg Institute for Stem cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM)
Computational Oncology, Molecular Diagnostics Program, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT)

Our research focuses on (a) pattern recognition in biological data, multi-omics analysis and data integration with special application to cancer genomics as well as (b) translational and personalized oncology, molecular tumor boards, biomarker development and data analysis for clinical trials.

 

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Felix Nickel
UNI HD

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Felix Nickel
Affiliation: Section for Minimally Invasive and Robotic-assisted Surgery

Our goal is to establish Precision Surgery with Digital Technologies using Computer Vision, Advanced Imaging, Robotic Surgery, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, and Extended Reality.

 

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ORCI

Frauke Gräter
UNI HD

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Frauke Gräter
Affiliation: Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR)

Proteins are exposed to and tightly regulated by mechanical forces, altering their dynamics, reactivity, and function. The major interest of the Molecular Biomechanics group is to decipher how proteins have been designed to specifically respond to mechanical forces in the cellular environment or outside of the cell. Our aim is to discover new molecular force sensors of living organisms, and to decipher their inner workings.

 

Our research focuses on protein materials, mechanoenzymes, and disordered proteins, with recent examples including collagen, the von Willebrand factor, and Focal Adhesion Kinase. To this end, we make use and further develop various computational and theoretical techniques, among others Molecular Dynamics simulations, Monte Carlo techniques, quantum chemistry, machine learning, and bioinformatics approaches.

 

Institution

07.2024 - 12.2024:

Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies & Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing, Heidelberg University & Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz

From 01.01.2025 onwards:

Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing, Heidelberg University  & Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz

 

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Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus
KIT

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Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus
Affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics

Advanced optical microscopy: Method development for live microscopy (superresolution, light sheet), data analysis, biophysical research

 

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Hannes Kenngott
UNI HD

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Hannes Kenngott
Affiliation: New Technologies and Data Science

The Kenngott Team develops computer-assisted surgery, clinical decision support systems, medical robotics, cyber-physical systems in surgery and machine learning on medical images and data.

 

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Heinz-Peter Schlemmer
DKFZ

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Heinz-Peter Schlemmer
Affiliation: Heinz-Peter Schlemmer

Multiparametric and multimodal oncologic imaging; whole-body imaging; high and ultra-high field MRI; PET/MR hybrid imaging; dual-energy CT; US;

 

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Jens Kleesiek
DKFZ

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Jens Kleesiek
Affiliation: Computational Radiology

The Kleesiek team develops machine learning algorithms for radiological and other clinical data. An emphasis lies on the translation of these computational methods into clinical settings.

 

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Joacim Rocklöv
UNI HD

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Joacim Rocklöv
Affiliation: Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH) | Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Computing (IWR)

Our research focuses on using data science for studying drivers and predicting the emergence of infectious disease spreading among animals, insects, and humans. Specifically, we use and develop process-based modelling, machine learning and combination approaches integrating data sources from different disciplines and domains across biological, environment, and social domains to explain, forecast and project risks. Within this area we are engaged in larger international networks and projects on infectious disease ecology and dynamics, pandemic preparedness and climate change impacts and adaptation.

 

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Johannes Bracher
KIT

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Johannes Bracher
Affiliation: Statistics and Econometrics Research Group, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology & Computational Statistics Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies

We develop statistical methods for infectious disease epidemiology, with a specific focus on multi-model short-term forecasting of disease spread.

 

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Julio Saez Rodriguez
UNI HD

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Julio Saez Rodriguez
Affiliation: Institute for Computational Biomedicine

Our goal is to acquire a functional understanding of the deregulation of signalling networks in disease and to apply this knowledge to develop novel therapeutics. We focus on cancer, auto-immune and fibrotic disease. Towards this goal, we integrate big (‘Omics’) data with mechanistic molecular knowledge into statistical and machine learning methods, and we share our tools as free open-source packages.

 

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Junyan Lu
UNI HD

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Junyan Lu
Affiliation: Institute of Computational Biomedicine, Medical Faculty Heidelberg

Dr. Lu’s team focuses on developing and applying statistical/machine learning tools for mining mass spectrometry proteomic/metabolomic data as well as integrating them with multi-omics and clinical data, in order to identify cancer biomarkers and drug targets.

 

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Jürgen Debus
UNI HD

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Jürgen Debus
Affiliation: Radiation Oncology and Radiation Therapy

Our goal is to establish precision medicine in Radiation Oncology with innovative high-precision protocols with ions and photons and molecular stratification of patients in over 40 trials.

 

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Lennart Hilbert
KIT

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Lennart Hilbert
Affiliation: Computational Architectures in the Cell Nucleus

The Hilbert lab investigates information processing in dense DNA suspensions, as seen inside the cell nucleus, using microscopy, image analysis, and physical modelling.

 

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Mark E. Ladd
DKFZ

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Mark E. Ladd
Affiliation: Medical Physics in Radiology

The Ladd team develops new and optimizes existing biomedical imaging methods (MRI, CT, PET, optical imaging and ultrasound) for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

 

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Martin Wagner
UNI HD

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Martin Wagner
Affiliation: Research Group Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Robotics within Section for minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery

The Wagner team investigates methods of artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics to improve surgical treatment with a strong focus on clinical translation.

 

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ORCID

Matthias Schlesner
DKFZ

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Matthias Schlesner
Affiliation: Bioinformatics and Omics Data Analytics

The Schlesner team develops and applies methods for data analysis, visualization and integration to explores omics data and address questions in basic and translational cancer research.

 

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Michael Baumann
DKFZ

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Michael Baumann
Affiliation: Radiooncology/Radiobiology

The Baumann team integrates omics data, pathological data and radiological imaging for personalized oncology.

 

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Oliver Jäkel
DKFZ

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Oliver Jäkel
Affiliation: Div. Medical Physics In Radiation Oncology

Our team is developing novel physical and mathematical methods to advance and improve radiation therapy. A major focus is on MR-guided radiotherapy, where we are developing methods to derive anatomical information for fast adaption, but also extract potential imaging biomarkers, which predict treatment outcome already during the course of therapy.

 

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Oya Kuseyri Hübschmann
UNI HD

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Oya Kuseyri Hübschmann
Affiliation: Division for Child Neurology and Metabolic Medicine, University Children's Hospital Heidelberg & Inborn errors of neurotransmitters and pterins working group, Dietmar-Hopp Metabolic Centre Heidelberg

Our research focuses on study of inborn errors of neurotransmitter metabolism. We (a) work with and on international patient registries with a deep phenotyping approach and (b) develop prototypic scoring systems for clinical severity, drug response and outcome prediction.

 

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ORCID

Pavlo Lutsik
DKFZ

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Pavlo Lutsik
Affiliation: Division of Cancer Epigenomics, Computational Cancer Epigenomics group

We develop methods and tools enabling data-driven insights into cancer biology through the epigenomes of tumor cells. Our major research topics include integrative analysis of large epigenomic data sets, deconvolution approaches for tumour heterogeneity inference, novel experimental techniques for epigenome profiling, as well as generic infrastructure for reproducible bioinformatics.

 

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Rebecca Wade
UNI HD

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Rebecca Wade
Affiliation: Molecular and Cellular Modeling Group, Center for Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University (ZMBH) / Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS)

Our main aim is to develop and apply computer-aided methods to study how biomolecules, such as proteins, interact. The methods make use of three-dimensional macromolecular structures and combine multiscale approaches based on physicochemical principles with those of bio-/chemo-informatics and machine learning.

 

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Sabine Jung-Klawitter
UNI HD

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Sabine Jung-Klawitter
Affiliation: AG Inborn errors of neurotransmitters and pterins

We are interested in inborn errors of metabolism with a special focus on defects in neurotransmitter biosynthesis and metabolism including defects in the biosynthesis of dopamine, serotonin, and GABA, as well as in tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) biosynthesis. We use patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), CRISPR-generated isogenic control iPSC lines and differentiated somatic cell types (neurons, glia) and organoids to elucidate the pathophysiology of the diseases. We are especially interested in (a) gaining a deeper understanding of the complex pathophysiology of the diseases, (b) obtaining better genotype/phenotype correlations and (c) the identification of new therapeutic targets and diagnostic markers.

 

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Stefan Kölker
UNI HD

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Stefan Kölker
Affiliation: Neuropaediatrics and Pediatric Metabolic Medicine

Our research, which is conducted collaboratively with the Heuveline team, aims at improving the diagnostic quality of newborn screening programs through application of machine learning methods and development of digital tiers. Furthermore, we aim to develop age-adapated personalized whole-body models for in-silico prediction of metabolomic changes in children with inherited metabolic diseases and their responses to treatment strategies. This is a first step to the development of digital metabolic twins.

 

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Uwe Spetzger
KIT

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Uwe Spetzger
Affiliation: Neurosurgical Clinic

Our goal is the ongoing development of computer-assisted neurosurgery and robotics. Optimization of visualization techniques combined with functional intraoperative mapping, as well as simulation and machine learning for neurosurgical interventions.

 

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Uwe Strähle
KIT

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Uwe Strähle
Affiliation: Insitute of Toxicology and Genetics

The Strähle lab investigates the regulatory mechanisms controlling development and regeneration and how these processes are disturbed in various genetic disease models.

 

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Veronique Orian-Rousseau
KIT

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Veronique Orian-Rousseau
Affiliation: Institute of Biological and Chemical Systems – Functional Molecular Systems (IBCS-FMS)

The Orian-Rousseau team is investigating signaling pathways involved in tumor progression and metastasis as well as in liver diseases. The impact of the microenvironment on these diseases is also under scrutiny.

 

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