Mission and Goals
Data science and AI for cancer research
The Institute for Computational Cancer Biology (ICCB) at the University Hospital Cologne was founded in 2022 to advance cancer research through computational methods and to train and educate the next generation of computational cancer scientists.
We are part of the Cancer Research Center Cologne Essen (CCCE) funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Our mission is to develop bespoke statistical methods, machine learning approaches, algorithms and models to decipher tumour heterogeneity and cancer evolution and improve our understanding of the wealth of genomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic and imaging data collected in cancer research.
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About us
Events
February 20, 2026 - 1pm, Zoom
ICCB Seminar Series on Computational Cancer Biology & Epi-Club - Professor Ana Pombo
Ana will talk about Spatial 3D Genomics: from mammalian chromosome structure to ecological microbiota relationships
About the speaker
Ana Pombo studied Biochemistry at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Afterwards, she obtained her PhD from the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, where she described transcription factories in the mammalian nucleus. She stayed as a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow before starting her own group at the Imperial College London in 2000. In 2013, Pombo moved her lab to Berlin, becoming a senior group leader at the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin-Buch with the focus on "Epigenetic Regulation and Chromatin Architecture". Now she is a research professor in the Department of Biology at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore. Ana is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Her work was awarded with the Leibniz Prize in 2025.
About us
News
January 12, 2026
Roland as a guest in the Born & Keppler podcast
Roland was invited to the Born & Keppler podcast hosted by Andreas Deptolla.
The two have discussed challenges and opportunities arising from the use of AI in medical research, particularly in the areas of early detection and resistance development.
In the accompanying blog post, Angelo Materlik discusses "Agentic AI in Medicine: Where Assistance Should End and Autonomy Begins".
July 05, 2024
Symposium "Artificial Intelligence for Human Cancer Medicine"
The Schwarz and Lehmann Labs highlighted their work and the role of AI in cancer research at the symposium ”Artificial Intelligence for Human Cancer Medicine" with Minister-President Hendrik Wüst MdL and NRW Minister of Science Ina Brandes.
Together with scientists from the Cancer Research Center Cologne Essen (CCCE) Brandes discussed how the NRW AI strategy could improve cancer patient care.
For more information see the news link of University Hospital Essen (German only): Symposium „Künstliche Intelligenz für eine menschliche Krebsmedizin“
Research Spotlights
Schwarz Lab - Cologne/Berlin
Cancer Genomics and Evolution
Algorithms for inferring and simulating cancer evolution and for understanding tumour heterogeneity, with a special focus on chromosomal instability and somatic copy-number alterations.
Lehmann Lab - Aachen
Molecular Signatures and Data Integration
Approaches that support the molecular characterisation of patient cohorts and reveal disease mechanisms through integration of diverse types of molecular data.
Sponsors and Partners
Funder
University Hospital and University of Cologne
Funder
Cancer Research Center Cologne Essen (CCCE)
funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Strategic partner
Berlin Institute for the Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD)
funded by the German Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).
