About me

I am professor for Life Science Informatics and Mathematics at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in Recklinghausen. The focus of the group is on the development and application of various biostatistical and bioinformatic methods for high-throughput 'omics data. The fields of application lie in biomedicine and freshwater ecology, ranging from the assessment of molecular reactions and responses to stressors in freshwater organism using sequencing data, over genome analyses in human and protists to proteomic studies in plants.

From 2017 to 2023 I was a lecturer in the department of Biodiversity headed by Jens Boenigk at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Here I applied computational techniques to investigate eco-evolutionary theories and hypotheses in microorganisms and the link between biodiversity and ecosystem functions using molecular data. Before, I have worked as a bioinformatician in the department of Genome Informatics headed by Sven Rahmann at the University Clinics in Essen. Former responsibilities included bioinformatic analyses in the field of human genetics, oncology, medical microbiology and radiation biology. During my PhD I worked on methods for integrated network analysis using different *omics datasets in conjunction with biological networks.

Staff and (co-) supervised students

Postdocs and Staff

  • Rebecca Schultz
  • Ken Dreger: Data management and integration (CRC 1439 - Z-INF)
  • Dr. Benjamin Meyer (until end of 2021): Data management and integration (CRC 1439 - Z-INF)

PhD students

Dana Bludau

Linking molecular and individual-based approaches to uncover functional redundancy in microbial food webs

Aman Deep

The roles of bacteria and fungi for CPOM degradation during stressor increase and release: A metatranscriptomic approach (CRC 1439 - A04)

Annemie Doliwa

Degradation and recovery of protistan parasite communities under multiple stressors (CRC 1439 - A07)

Manan Shah

Differential potential of metabarcoding, metatranscriptomics, and metagenomics for the assessment of lake water quality (Bauer-Stiftung und Stemmler-Stiftung)

  • Julia Nuy (finished 2020): The effects of the environment on microbial freshwater communities investigated using high-throughput sequencing
  • Stephan Majda (finished 2020): Evolution in Chrysophyceae regarding the nutritional mode and intraspecific variation based on comparative genomics
  • Nadine Graupner (finished 2018): Molecular insights into the functional diversity of protists

Master students

  • Dana Bludau (2023): Comparative analysis of Illumina and Nanopore amplicon sequences of eukaryotic sediment samples
  • Sandra Roeser (2020): Transcriptional responses of aquatic and terrestrial protistan communities to flooding events
  • Marius Welzel (2018): Development of an Amplicon Snakemake Workflow including a Novel K-Mer Based Detection Method for Chimeric Sequences

Bachelor students

  • Saaruky Chanthirakanthan: Identifizierung von variantenspezifischen Mutationsprofilen zur verlässlichen Klassifizierung respiratorischer Viren am Beispiel von SARS-CoV-2 with Folker Meyer
  • Torben Reinders (2023): Untersuchung der photochemischen PSII-effizienz von Cortexgeweben zweier Auenarten (Salix fragilis L. und Fraxinus excelsior L.)
  • Nico Kreuder (2020): Who prefers what? Indicator OTUs for groups of fresh water samples across Europe
  • Josefa Welling (2019): Zellzyklus assoziierte Gene in Chrysophyceae
  • Luise Franke (2018): Comparative pigment analysis of Chrysophyceae
  • Sonja Amri (2018): Isolation of chrysophytes from soil samples
  • Benedict Schubert (2017): Systematische Evaluation von k-mer-basierten phylogenetischen Baumrekonstruktionsalgorithmen

Student helpers

  • Marco Heuver
  • Torben Reinder (2021-2023)

Internships

  • Muammer Ates (Master Research Project): Etablierung der Oxford-Nanopore Sequenzierung zur Diversitätsbestimmung von Prokaryoten in Umweltproben
  • Saaruky Chanthirakanthan (Bachelor Praxisphase): Interne Aufarbeitung der GISAID Datenbank für SARS-CoV-2 Referenzgenome und Mutationen with Folker Meyer
  • Dana Bludau (2022)
  • Sarah Olberg (2021)
  • Nico Kreuder (2019)
  • Marius Welzel (2018)
  • Judith Blömer (2017)
  • Philipp Heidelbach (2013)