Welcome!

The Algorithmic Bioinformatics group at Saarland University is headed by Prof. Sven Rahmann. It belongs to both the Mathematics and Informatics Faculty (“MI”) and the Center for Bioinformatics (ZBI) and is part of Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC). Our research focuses on method development (algorithms and data structures) for concrete problems that arise in biological data analysis. We mainly teach in the Bioinformatics degree programs.

Welcome!

The Algorithmic Bioinformatics group at Saarland University is headed by Prof. Sven Rahmann. It belongs to both the Mathematics and Informatics Faculty (“MI”) and the Center for Bioinformatics (ZBI) and is part of Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC). Our research focuses on method development (algorithms and data structures) for concrete problems that arise in biological data analysis. We mainly teach in the Bioinformatics degree programs.


Recent News

02 Oct 2024 | GCB 2024

GCB 2024

We had wonderful days at GCB 2024 in Bielefeld. The group was very active:

  • We organized a workshop on Just-in-time compiled Python for bioinformatics research.
  • Sven co-organized the workshop on Bioinformatics Education, attempting to harmonize BSc curricula in Germany.
  • Johanna presented a poster on the unseen species estimation problem.
  • Jens gave a highly praised talk on efficiently computing strong vs. weak k-mers in large k-mer sets. We can mark weak k-mers in the human reference genome in 40 seconds.
  • We also announced that we will host GCB in Saarbrücken in 2026.

Jens Zentgraf talking about weak k-mer identification



02 Sep 2024 | Swiftly Identifying Strongly Unique k-Mers at WABI 2022

QR-cdoe to the paper

Jens presented his paper “Swiftly Identifying Strongly Unique k-Mers” at the Wonderful Algorithms in Bioinformatics conference.


04 Apr 2024 | ISMB 24 - Tutorial Just-in-time compiled Python for bioinformatics research

ISMB 2024

We are happy to announce that Sven, Jens and Johanna are organizing a whole day tutorial at the ISMB 2024 in Montréal. We will give an introduction on Just-in-time compiled Python for bioinformatics research.


04 Apr 2024 | GCB 24 - Workshop Just-in-time compiled Python for bioinformatics research

GCB 2024

We are happy to announce that Sven, Jens and Johanna are organizing a half day workshop at the GCB 2024 in Bielefeld. We will give an introduction on Just-in-time compiled Python for bioinformatics research.


25 Mar 2024 | Günther Hotz Medal

Johanna was awarded the Günther Hotz Medal.

At the graduation ceremony of the SIC, Johanna was awarded the Günther Hotz Medal for an outstanding Master’s degree in Bioinformatics.


18 Mar 2024 | Data Structures in Bioinformatics

DSB

Sven, Jens and Johanna visited the workshop Data Structures in Bioinformatics in Montpellier. Johanna gave a talk about EpiSegMix, a new tool for chromatin segmentation based on epigentic marks using HMMs.


20 Dec 2023 | Christmas Party

Andrea Volkamer, Sven Rahmann, and Alexey Gurevich hosted an inauguration / Christmas party at the Center of Bioinformatics.


15 Sep 2023 | German Conference on Bioinformatics

Poster session GCB23

The group visited the German Conference on Bioinformatics (GCB) in Hamburg. Sven co-organized the workshop Education in Bioinformatics. Johanna, Vu Lam and Andre presented posters about their current work. Jens gave a talk about the new Xengsort version.


23 Jun 2023 | CPM summer school

Vu Lam Dang and Jens Zentgraf participated in the CPM summer school at the École normale supérieure in Paris. Vu Lam presented a poster about his work on factorization of binary matrices and the possibility of using them to calculate polygenic risk score. Jens presented a poster about the possibility to combine super-k-mers and multi-way bucketed parallel Cuckoo hashing.


14 Jun 2023 | Algorithmic Bioinformatics at the HLA-Workshop

andre holzer during his talk

From 14.06. to 16.06 Andre Holzer, Sven Rahmann, Johanna Schmitz, Johannes Schreieck and Jens Zentgraf participated in the HLA-Workshop by the Stefan Morsch Foundation. Andre gave a talk about the Opportunities and Challenges of Long-Read Sequencing.


15 May 2023 | Visit of the working group of Jan Fostier

foto of ghent

Sven Rahmann and Jens Zentgraf visited the group of Jan Fostier in Ghent. We had an interesting exchange about search schemes, k-mers and different applications.


21 Apr 2023 | Algorithmic Bioinformatics visiting the Stefan Morsch foundation

group foto at the stefan morsch foundation

We visited the Stefan Morsch Foundation and had the opportunity to visit the laboratories and look at the procedure. We discussed the possibilities, difficulties and advantages of long read sequencing in HLA typing.


01 Apr 2023 | Johanna Schmitz joined the Algorithmic Bioinformatics group

group foto at the stefan morsch foundation

On 01.04 we could welcome Johanna Schmitz as a new member of the group. She has already written her master thesis entitled “Multivariate Hidden Markov Models with Flexible Distributions for Chromatin–State Discovery” in the group and is working on:

  • Development of an efficient and accurate chromatin segmentation method based on epigenetic marks
  • Investigating the diversity or species richness of a large population

21 Mar 2023 | Algorithmic Bioinformatics presenting at DSB 2023

logo of the DSB workshop

Vu Lam Dang, Sven Rahmann and Jens Zentgraf attended the Data Structures in Bioinformatics (DSB 2023) in Delft and presented parts of their work.

Sven Rahmann gave a talk about “Optimal Worst-Case Design of Gapped k-mer Masks”. Vu Lam presented joint work with Sven Rahmannm titled “Deriving polygenic risk score using non-negative matrix factorization “.


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