Computational and Single-Cell Epigenomics
Dr. Michael Scherer
Team Leader Computational and Single-Cell Epigenomics
We work on computational solutions for investigating alterations in the epigenomic pattern related to cancer, with a special focus on changes to the DNA methylation pattern. Additionally, we leverage single-cell DNA methylation technologies to investigate methylation changes in rare cell populations.
People
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Dr. Michael Scherer
Team Leader Computational and Single-Cell Epigenomics
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Dr. Belen Otero Carrasco
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Sergio Manzano Sanchez
Technician
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Oliver Mücke
Technician
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Maxime de Vrieze
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Marielouise Griebl
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Paul Christmann
Running Projects
We investigate whether enhancer hijacking is an understudied and overlooked mechanism of oncogene activation in lung cancer.
Using a combination of bulk assays and single-cell profiling, we are investigating whether epigenetic heterogeneity is associated with leukemogenesis and therapy resistance
Using DNA methylation profiling of cfDNA, we aim to detect prostate cancer at a very early stage.
RnBeads is an R package for comprehensive analysis of DNA methylation data obtained with any experimental protocol that provides single-CpG resolution. Supported assays include Infinium and EPIC microarrays and bisulfite sequencing protocols, and also MeDIP-seq and MBD-seq once the data have been preprocessed with DNA methylation level inference software. RnBeads implements an analysis workflow that is significantly more comprehensive than those of existing tools. It documents its results in a highly annotated and readable hypertext report, and it scales to the large sample sizes that are becoming the norm for DNA methylation analysis in human cohorts.
Open Projects
We are continuously looking for new people to join our team. At the moment, we have the following open positions:
Bachelor/Master thesis projects in Computational and Single-Cell Epigenomics
We offer a variety of projects ranging from computational tool development, over data analysis, until projects involving wet-lab work. At the moment, we offer the following projects:
- Data analysis tasks around various cancer types using of the RnBeads (rnbeads.org/) toolsuite
- Development of software tools, including projection methods, for the analysis of scTAM-seq data
- Predicting chromothripsis from DNA methylation data
- Exploring the impact of fusion genes in lung cancer development
Being embedded in the Division of Cancer Epigenomics, we offer a welcoming work atmosphere with a mix of computational and experimental students.
What we are looking for: We are looking for students that are pursuing their Bachelor's and Master's degree and that want to do their Bachelor/Master thesis or lab rotation in Computational Epigenomics. Previous experience with programming in R and with epigenomics are advantages.
Selected Publications
Scherer M*, Singh I*, Braun M*, Szu-Tu C*, et al.
Bianchi, A.*, Scherer, M.*, Zaurin, R., Quililan, K., Velten, L., & Beekman, R.
Scherer, M., Nebel, A., Franke, A., Walter, J., Lengauer, T., Bock, C., Müller, F., & List, M.
Scherer, M.,* Nazarov, P. V., Toth, R., Sahay, S., Kaoma, T., Maurer, V., Vedeneev, N., Plass, C., Lengauer, T., Walter, J., & Lutsik, P.
Müller, F.*, Scherer, M.*, Assenov, Y., Lutsik, P., Walter, J., Lengauer, T., & Bock, C
Additional Publications
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