Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology Department Bioinformatics
Analysis of genomic regulation in various diseases using bioinformatic methods
Prof. Dr. Herrmann's biomedical genomics group focuses on genomic deregulation in diseases such as various types of cancer, mental illnesses and infections. Various bioinformatic and statistical methods as well as machine learning are used. A particular focus is on the analysis of epigenetics and single-cell data sets. The group also develops new methods for analyzing and integrating large biological data sets.
Research Topics
The current research areas of the Bioinformatics department include a wide variety of topics. For example, the Biomedical Genomics Group provides the R package "ButchR", which uses non-negative matrix factorization to identify patterns in gene expression between different cells and states. Methods for the integration of bulk and single-cell data are also being developed and investigated.
Another central aspect, which is being investigated using various methods, is the influence of epigenetic changes on gene expression. Here, large data sets are analyzed and attempts are made to make predictions.
Recently, the working group has also developed various machine learning models for analyzing, integrating and translating multi-omics data based on variational auto-encoders.
Information for Applicants
The Bioinformatics group is open for bachelor and master theses. An overview of possible Bachelor's thesis topics can be found on the group's external website. Internships, for example as part of a Master's degree program, are also possible on request if a suitable topic can be found.