Saez-Rodriguez Group

Systems Biomedicine

Julio Saez-Rodriguez

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,  Group Leader at the EMBL- Heidelberg University Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU),  member of ELLIS Heidelberg and a co-director of the DREAM challenges.
Contact: \ saez (at) ebi {dot} ac.uk

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