Genome Informatics

Head: Prof. Dr. Stefan Kurtz

Today, the research area genome informatics is focussed on the analysis of the large sets of sequences (short reads) produced by novel sequencing technologies. The continuous spread of these technologies in many areas of the life sciences has led to a large number of novel applications. These in turn posed new scientific problems in data analysis and data integration.

The Research Group for Genome Informatics develops and applies new algorithms and data structuresas well as flexible software systems to solve some of these problems, mainly related to the assembly of short reads, as well as their efficient representation and retrieval. In addition, the group is concerned with developing methods for comparing the genomes assembled from the reads. In collaborations with life scientists, the groups works on the analysis of short reads sequenced from metagenomic probes.