I am directing the IMBEI at University Medical Center Mainz, which hosts several divisions addressing various topics in medical data science as well as the German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR). My research interests focus on the development and application of biostatistics and bioinformatics methods in genetic and clinical epidemiology. This includes prediction and early diagnosis of diseases using molecular markers and high-dimensional statistical learning techniques as a basis of an individualized prevention or therapy. My interests further extend to the analysis of common and rare genetic variants with various phenotypes as well as software implementation of specialized analytical approaches for family studies, such as estimation of disease-model parameters, modeling gene-gene interactions, and epigenetic effects. I have experience regarding design and analysis of clinical trials (diagnostic, prognostic, therapeutic) ranging from phase I to IV, as well as regarding data handling, data protection and ethical aspects involved with genomic and other molecular markers in the context of population-based and clinical cohort studies. Within the Medical Informatics Initiative, I am engaged in the integration of routine clinical data of patients in order to be used for biomedical research projects. I am a member of the Board of the Gutenberg Health Study (GHS), of the Steering Committee of the University Centre for Tumor Diseases (UCT), as well as of the Corona expert panel of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Positions held

Since 2019  
Professor (W3) of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology and Director of Institute of Medical Biometry, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

2011-2019  
Professor (W3) of Genetic Epidemiology, Medical Faculty, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and Director of Institute of Genetic Epidemiology at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany

2005-2010  
Professor (W2) of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology and Head of Center for Methods in Genetic Epidemiology (GEM), Institute of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, Medical Faculty, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany

1997-2005  
Research fellow, Institute for Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn, Germany

Education

2010 
Certificate "Biometrics in Medicine" by the German Society of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS) and the German Region of the International Biometric Society (IBS-DR)

2000-2005 
Habilitation in Genetic Epidemiology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn, Germany

1996-2000 
PhD in Statistical Genetics / Theoretical Biology (Dr. rer. nat.) at the University of Bonn, Germany

1991-1996 
Studies of Physics (M.A. / Diplom) at the University of Würzburg and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA