Julio Saez-Rodriguez
Group Leader
Biography
Julio Saez-Rodriguez is Head of Research at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Professor on leave of Medical Bioinformatics and Data Analysis at the Faculty of Medicine of Heidelberg University, member of ELLIS Heidelbergand a co-director of the DREAM challenges.
Research Interests
Julio is broadly interested in how large biological data sets can be interrogated with mathematical models to unveil the molecular basis of disease as a means to develop novel therapies. The current emphasis of his research is on single-cell and spatial data, multi-omics integration, and understanding multi-cellular communication. He is particularly interested in how to use the existing knowledge of biological processes to support computational analysis. He supports open science, especially by developing open-source computational tools and co-organization of the DREAM challenges.While the computational methods are broadly applicable, his focus is on cancer, autoimmune diseases, and conditions of the kidney and heart.
Professional Career
2024-present
Head of Research, European Bioinformatics Institute, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-EBI)
2018-present
Full (W3) Professor of Medical Bioinformatics and Data Analysis & Director of the Institute for Computational Biomedicine Heidelberg University, Faculty of Medicine, Germany (on leave since 2024)
2018-present
Group Leader at EMBL - University Hospital Heidelberg Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU)
2015-2018
Full (W3) Professor of Computational Biomedicine & Director of the Institute for Computational Biomedicine I, RWTH-Aachen University, Faculty of Medicine, Germany
2015-2018
Visiting group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-EBI)
2010-2015
Group Leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-EBI), with a joint appointment in the EMBL Genome Biology Unit in Heidelberg
2010-2015
Senior fellow at Wolfson College (Cambridge, UK)
2008-2010
Scientific Coordinator of the NIH-NIGMS Cell Decision Process Center, Cambridge, MA, USA
2007-2010
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School and MIT, Boston USA
2002-2007
Research Assistant, Max Planck Institute, Magdeburg, Germany
2001-2002
Research assistant, University of Stuttgart, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Germany, and Insilico Biotechnology, Germany
Education
2002-2007
PhD summa cum laude in Process Engineering; Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems and University of Magdeburg, Germany (Advisor: E. D. Gilles)
2000-2001
Exchange Erasmus student at the University of Stuttgart, Germany
1996-2001
’Licenciatura’ (MS), in Chemical Engineering University of Oviedo, Spain, finished with the best academic record of the year