Computational Biology of Infection Research

The Department of “Computational Biology for Infection Research” studies the human microbiome, viral and bacterial pathogens, and human cell lineages within individual patients by analysis of large-scale biological and epidemiological data sets with computational techniques. Focusing on high throughput meta’omics, population genomic and single cell sequencing data, we produce testable hypotheses, such as sets of key sites or relevant genes associated with the presence of a disease, of antibiotic resistance or pathogenic evasion of immune defense. We interact with experimental collaborators to verify our findings and to promote their translation into medical treatment or diagnosis procedures. To achieve its research goals, the department also develops novel algorithms and software.

Leader

Prof Dr Alice McHardy

Alice Carolyn McHardy studied biochemistry from 1995 to 2000 at Bielefeld University. She obtained a PhD in bioinformatics in 2004 and then worked as a postdoc at the Center for Biotechnology at Bielefeld University. From 2005 to 2007 she worked first as a postdoc and then as a permanent staff member in the Bioinformatics and Pattern Discovery Group at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, USA. She then became the head of the independent research group for "Computational Genomics and Epidemiology" at the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science in Saarbrücken. In 2010, she was appointed as Chair of Algorithmic Bioinformatics at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. Since 2014, she leads the Computational Biology of Infection Research Lab at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig.

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