Artificial Intelligence in Oncology
- Functional and Structural Genomics

Prof. Dr. Moritz Gerstung
Group Leader
The Gerstung lab investigates how tumours grow and change over time using AI and big data.
Image: Group logo for B450, © dkfz.de

Image: Group logo for B450, © dkfz.de
Our Research
Cancer develops according to the rules of evolution — mutation and selection. Yet little is known about the timing of this process, the mechanisms by which mutations cause cancer cells to grow and how best to predict and influence the future course of this process.
Understanding these processes requires knowledge of large amounts of information at various scales. A cell’s genome comprises 6 billion base pairs of DNA. Thousands of genetic and epigenetic alterations of the DNA lead to a series of molecular cellular changes in each single cell. Further, tumours are an ecosystem of billions of mutant and normal cells that interact with each other via cellular contacts and signaling molecules.
Charting and modeling this information therefore requires sophisticated machine learning and AI algorithms. The primary focus of the lab is developing such algorithms and carrying out large scale data analyses to understand cancer evolution. The lab is also committed to contribute to generating genomic and molecular data at single and spatial resolution that form the basis of our research.
Specific research projects of the lab involve the establishment of a new spatial genomics platform for data generation and analysis. This will be key for decoding cancer evolution and unlock the secrets of the cancer ecosystem. We are also investigating how our knowledge about the natural history and origins of cancer can be used for early detection and cancer prevention. Lastly, the lab investigates how mutations arise in single cells to understand the very first steps of cancer development.
Our Team
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Prof. Dr. Moritz Gerstung
Group Leader
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Anna Mathioudaki
PostDoc
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Darui Jin
PostDoc
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Gleb Rukhovich
Bioinformatician
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Nina Wilhelm
Lab Technician
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Lilla Pecori
Secretary
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Eileen Haage
Secretary
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Domenico Calafato
PhD Student
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Shuyang Fan
PhD Student
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Elyas Heidari
PhD Student
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Heng Luo
PhD Student
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Michael Ritter
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Samuel Philippe Rutz
PhD Student
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Zaira Seferbekova
PhD Student
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Artem Shmatko
PhD Student
Friends from other Labs
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Areeba Jamilkhan Patel
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Yiheng Tang
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Eleonore Boiral
PhD Student
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Ian Dirk Fichtner
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Dr. Clémence Henon
Selected Pubblications
Multi-cancer risk stratification based on national health data: a retrospective modelling and validation study
AW Jung, PC Holm, K Gaurav, JX Hjaltelin, D Placido, LH Mortensen, et al.
Learning the natural history of human disease with generative transformers
A Shmatko, AW Jung, K Gaurav, S Brunak, L Mortensen, E Birney, et al.
Stefan C. Dentro, Sara Vidal-Notari, Swee Hoe Ong, Bartomeu Colom, Kasumi Murai, Charlotte King, Krishnaa Mahbubani, Kourosh Saeb-Parsy, Alan R. Lowe, Moritz Gerstung, et al.
Get in touch with us
