Institute for Computational Cancer Biology | Groups

Schwarzlab

Who we are

We are a hetereogeneous and dynamic team of scientists with a variety of different backgrounds in computer science, physics, mathematics, biotechnology, biology, medicine and more. We all share a common passion for computational biology and the analysis of complex data. Sounds like you?

come on board

Group Leader

Prof. Dr. Roland F. Schwarz

Computer scientist with a PhD in Bioinformatics.

Loves formal grammars, Markov models and phylogenetic trees.

Quote: "What if it's a Markov chain?"

PhD Student

Maja-Celine Stöber

Biomathematician. Fond of single-cell data analysis and extrachromosomal DNA. Master of Journal Club.

Quote: "No, Roland, you cannot skip Journal Club."

PhD Student

Tom L. Kaufmann

Physicist by training. Fan of deep learning and mutational processes shaping copy number. Developer of MEDICC2 and refphase. Master of Lab Meeting.

Quotes: "Oups.", "This is funny..."

Postdoc / Scientific Programmer

Dr. Adam Streck

Computer scientist with a PhD in Bioinformatics.

Modelling the world through cellular automata and stochastic processes. Gamer at heart, living the VR hype. Author of SMITH.

Master of Technology.

Clinician Scientist

Dr. Daniel Schütte

Medical doctor and computer scientist.

Improving patient care through early detection and better stratification of cancer through cfDNA and liquid biopsies.

MD Student

Felix Schifferdecker

Medical student and computer scientist.

Simulating cancer evolution and structural alterations and how cancer genome fitness evolves over time.

 

Postdoc

Dr. Cody Duncan

Physicist with a PhD in Particle Physics.

Interested in simulation-building and stochastic processes for cancer evolution. In-house Rugby League expert and AFL ruckman.

Master of Technology Cologne.

Postdoc

Dr. Nathan Lee

Applied mathematician with a PhD in computational biology.

Interested in cancer evolution, stochastic processes, and simulations of carcinogenesis.

PhD Student

Claudia Robens

Biotechnologist by training.

Investigating chromosomal instability and chromatin architecture in cancer.

PhD Student

Katyayni Ganesan

Biologist by training.

Interested in single-cell cancer evolution and transcriptomics.

Postdoc / Scientific Coordinator

Dr. Laura Godfrey

Biologist by training with a PhD in Molecular Biology now turned Bioinformatician.

Interested in epigenetics and -genomics.

Scientific coordinator, third party funding, web editor.

PhD Student

Chenxi Nie

Bioinformatician by training.

Interested in stochastic processes, stochastic sampling and Formula 1.

Working on improving phylogenetic inference from copy number profiles.

Administrative Assistant

Stefanie Fleer

Lab coordination and administrative organisation.

Master Student

Jeremiah Santoso

Computational scientist by training.

Interested in computational methods for cancer treatment and detection.

Postdoc / Scientific Programmer

Dr. Thomas Kono

Background in plant evolutionary genetics.

Interest in bioinformatics workflow development for robust and reproducible genomics data processing and variant interpretation.

Master Student

Alexander Nicolay

Master student in Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine.

Currently working on benchmarking tree reconstruction software and learning to press the right 0s and 1s along the way.

MD Student

Florian Over

Medical student.

Currently learning data analysis for single cell sequencing.

Visitors

Visiting Scientist

Dr. Tom Watkins

Physician by training. Chromosomal instability and somatic copy-number alterations.

From the Swanton lab, Francis Crick Institute, London.

Visiting Scientist

Dr. Kerstin Haase

Bioinformatician by training. Interested in tumour heterogeneity and somatic copy-number alterations.

From the Jamal-Hanjani lab, Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Visiting Scientist

Dr. Philipp Keyl

Medical doctor by training. Interested in combining medical research with machine learning

Lab mascot

Quark

Fierce winged unicorn. Destroyer of bugs. Defender of students. Do not mess with Quark.

Quote: "No, I'm not a pegacorn."

Alumni

Former Master Student

Giuseppe Barranco

Biologist and bioinformatician by training. Interested in single-cell genomics.

Former MD Student

Selina Wächter

Medical student. Investigated how selectional constraints shape cancer evolution.

 

Former Research Associate

Teodora Bucaciuc

Biologist and Bioinformatician by training. Interested in genomics and the co-evolution of genome and epigenome.

Former Intern

Elisa Billard

Life Science Engineer. Investigated how to improve subclone detection in tumour sequencing data.

Now Master student at EPFL Lausanne.

Former PhD Student

Dr. Maria Stella de Biase

Biotechnologist by training. Early detection and risk stratification of cancer. Heroine of gene regulation.

Now Bioinformatician at Bristol Myers Squibb.

 

Former PhD Student

Dr. Marina Petkovic

Physicist by training. Algorithms for copy-number evolution. Developer of MEDICC2.

Now research scientist at the Relogio lab, Charite Berlin.

Quote: "So..."

Former PhD Student

Dr. Julia Markowski

Biologist and Bioinformatician. Lover of chromatin structure and graph-theoretical algorithms. Author of GAMIBHEAR.

Now postdoc in the Park lab at Harvard Medical School.

Quote: "Well, that's complicated..."

Former Master student

Victoria M. Dombrowe

Knower of Molecular Medicine, mapped the epigenome and its evolution.

 

Former PhD Student

Dr. Martin Burkert

Bioinformatician. Copy-number dosage effects in Neuroblastoma. Shared with AG Ohler, MDC-BIMSB, Berlin.

Now postdoc at the Waszak lab at NCMM, University of Oslo, Norway.

Former Postdoc

Dr. Florian Massip

Mathematician. Statistical genetics for germline gene regulation and cancer risk.

Now Principal Investigator at Institute Curie, Paris, France.

Former Postdoc

Dr. Matthew Huska

Computer Scientist. Copy-number phasing and detection. Developer of refphase.

Now postdoc at Robert-Koch-Institute, Berlin, Germany.