Biomedical Informatics and Genetic Redefinition of Phenotypes

Group Leader

David Ellinghaus

Mission Statement

Our research focuses on large-scale molecular genetic studies for chronic inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases, genomics and statistical genetics, machine learning, omics data analytics, hardware-based acceleration of bioinformatics algorithms, development of GDPR-compliant bioinformatics web applications, and data management of molecular data. The primary goal of our genetic and omics-based methodological research as well as cross-phenotype epidemiologic gene-gene, gene-environment and gene-drug response studies is the identification of specific target genes and biomarkers for a variety of chronic diseases (among others, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and psoriasis) as a basis for the development of new targeted therapeutic approaches.

As another central element of our research, we aim to deepen the interdisciplinary research approach between basic clinical research, computer science and industrial design/interface design, with the aim of providing medical scientists with user-friendly graphical interfaces and new ultra-fast webservices (keyword “green IT”; Best Workshop Paper “1000x Faster than PLINK” of the ICCS Conference 2018 and supported by the Prof. Dr. Werner-Petersen Foundation) using graphics processing units (GPUs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and to provide new analysis options for the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

To further develop the focus on inflammation research and bioinformatics at the UKSH Kiel, SH Chair holder David Ellinghaus supports the innovation structure Precision Health in Schleswig-Holstein (PHSH)  and the Cluster of Excellence Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI) with the aim of providing holistic omics analyses and new bioinformatics methods for patient datasets from the Health Care Embedded Biobanking (HCEB) .The long-term goal is to reclassify diseases and comorbidities along individual genetic-molecular and pathophysiological profiles (keyword: precision medicine) for patients from Schleswig-Holstein.