Computational immunologist.Team leader.MBA.
I turn complex immune data into answers, and research groups into teams that work.
Assistant Professor (tenure track) of Quantitative Biomedicine
UMC Mainz|DKFZ|Helmholtz AI
Hi, I'm Charles
I'm a bioinformatician who fell for immunology. My group, split between Mainz and Heidelberg, studies how immune cells adapt to tissues and tumours, using single-cell and epigenetic data.
I took my first steps in genomics with insects at the Max Planck Institute in Jena and worked in industry along the way. In 2024 I finished an Executive MBA at Mannheim Business School, because leading a research group means leading people and making decisions, not just analysing data.
I'm also deep into AI: I'm a Helmholtz AI Associate and use AI agents every day. At home I'm a father of two.
Science
How immune cells adapt
Single-cell and epigenetic data on regulatory T cells and other immune cells, in tissues, tumours and over a lifetime.
Nature Immunology · 2025 · Shared first author
Regulatory T cells in skin carry a DNA-methylation signature that also finds their relatives circulating in blood.
DNA hypomethylation traits define human regulatory T cells in cutaneous tissue and identify their blood recirculating counterparts →PNAS · 2026
Without APOBEC2, lymphocytes with both T- and B-cell identity appear, in mice and in humans.
APOBEC2 deficiency disrupts hematopoietic lineage commitment, resulting in emergence of dual identity lymphocytes in mice and humans →Nature Communications · 2024 · Shared senior author
Myeloma survivors still show immune changes decades after therapy.
Multiple myeloma long-term survivors exhibit sustained immune alterations decades after first-line therapy →Immunity · 2025
Polyamines shape how regulatory T cells specialise, and with that, immunity against tumours.
Polyamines regulate adaptive antitumor immunity by functional specialization of regulatory T cells →
Leadership & business
People, budgets, priorities
Running a research group is also running a small organisation: people, budgets, priorities. I trained for that side on purpose.
Mannheim Business School
Executive MBA
Completed in 2024, alongside running the group.
Senior Expert
Bioinformatics and computational oncoimmunology in the expert network of an AI consultancy.
University Medical Center Mainz
DFG Collaborative Research Centre 1292
I look after sequencing, finances and organisation of the central service project, and contribute to the data analysis.
GeneNovate Rhein-Main
Life Science Entrepreneurship Programme
Taking research ideas towards products, 2025.
Intershop · BioMed X · GeneWerk (now ProtaGene)
Industry before academia
Software consulting and bioinformatics consulting before and during my PhD.
Building
AI, tools and ventures
I like to build things people can actually use, and lately most of them involve AI.
cellorbit.org
CellOrbit →
Explore single-cell data in 3D and ask questions about it in an LLM chat.
Built with Linda Welte and Lenart Žežlina.
understandyourgenome.org
Understand Your Genome →
Free annotation of raw DNA files from 23andMe, AncestryDNA and others against public databases.
Helmholtz AI Associate
Part of the Helmholtz Association's AI network.
AI agents, every day
Claude and Claude Code in research and in running the lab, from analysis to infrastructure.
MCP servers
Connecting language models to genomic data through the Model Context Protocol. This site has one too.
Toolbox
What I work with
- years on Linux
- ~30years on Linux
- years in bioinformatics
- 16years in bioinformatics
- years leading a team
- 8years leading a team
- Executive MBA
- 1Executive MBA
Data analysis
- single-cell RNA, ATAC, TCR/BCR
- CITE-seq
- 10x Multiome
- BD Rhapsody
- spatial omics (Xenium, CODEX)
- DNA methylation (WGBS, 450k/EPIC)
- bulk RNA-seq
- WGS/WES
- chromatin accessibility & TF motifs
- differential expression & methylation
- somatic mutations (driver vs. passenger)
- immune repertoires
- HLA typing
- cell-type deconvolution
- transposable elements
- viral integration sites
- comparing studies without integration
- genome assembly
Code & pipelines
- R / Bioconductor
- Python
- Bash
- Nextflow
- Snakemake
- SQL / PostgreSQL
- Git / GitLab
- Seurat
- scverse
- Java (earlier)
- building web apps with AI tools
Linux, HPC & infrastructure
- Linux, ~30 years
- Slurm
- LSF (bsub)
- Docker
- Apptainer / Singularity
- conda
- GPU computing
- building compute clusters & storage
- networking & VPNs
- web servers & TLS
- mail servers
- monitoring
- virtualisation
- user management
- large-scale data transfer & validation
- data management (ICGC, cBioPortal)
- self-hosting
AI
- AI agents (Claude Code)
- MCP servers
- LLM-based apps
- building web apps with AI tools
- AI in research and lab operations
Leadership & business
- leading a team across two sites
- supervising students
- project & budget management
- grant writing
- consortium coordination
- strategy & finance (MBA)
- consulting
- entrepreneurship
Languages
German · English · Thai
Need a hand with something on this list? I take on occasional consulting and advisory work. Get in touch
Or explore it the Linux way. Type help.
Life
Off the clock
Father of two
The best and busiest project I'm part of.
Badminton
When the kids allow.
Former glider pilot
Quiet flying, a hobby from earlier years.
Linux & open source
Linux since I was about twelve and a long-time member of the AHRlug, the Linux User Group Ahrtal. I self-host everything I can.
ahrlug.de →
Now · October 2026
What I'm working on
- Sequencing, finances and organisation for the new funding period of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre 1292.
- Bringing AI agents into everyday research work.
- Building CellOrbit and Understand Your Genome.
Contact
Let's talk.
Collaborations, students, AI projects, consulting or a coffee: send me a message and I'll get back to you by email.