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?
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."
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.