Florian Halbritter

Principal Investigator

Florian studies developmental and cancer biology using computational approaches and high-throughput data. He originally trained in Cognitive Science (University of Osnabrück, Germany) focusing on computer programming, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, then became excited about biology during an exchange program in Scotland and switched into computational biology. For his PhD work at the University of Edinburgh, he studied the regulatory circuits of embryonic stem cells and, to this end, developed tools and databases for next-generation sequencing data. Aiming to move closer to biomedical application, he joined the Bock lab, where he spearheaded projects studying the developing blood and immune system and diseases emanating from this system. He moved to St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI) in 2018, where he now combines aspects of his diverse background to decipher developmental processes in cancer biology. Ancillary to science, Florian’s goal is to bring sophisticated bioinformatics closer to experimental scientists, to build valuable resources for research, and to encourage reuse of public data. He’s a proponent of collaborative science and thrives in multi-disciplinary teams.