Dr. Benjamin Schubert

My academic path is rooted in bioinformatics and driven by a strong interest in understanding the immune system through computational methods. I completed both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Bioinformatics at the University of Tübingen, where I focused early on immunoinformatics and vaccine design. This experience sparked a lasting interest in translating computational insights into real biomedical applications. I further developed this focus during my doctoral research at the University of Tübingen under the supervision of Prof. Oliver Kohlbacher, developing advanced immunoinformatics approaches for personalized cancer vaccine design. Through this work, I established a strong foundation in combining machine learning, optimization, and immunology to study complex biological systems.

Following my PhD, I moved to the United States for postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. There, I worked on computational protein engineering problems, pioneering the use of co-evolutionary sequence models for protein design.

Today, I lead research at the interface of AI and immunology, heading the Translational Immunoinformatics Lab at Helmholtz Munich and serving as a Principal Investigator at both the German Center for Lung Research and MILA in Canada. My work centers on developing machine learning and optimization methods to analyze immune system dynamics and drive immunotherapy development. By integrating multi-omics data, I aim to uncover the mechanisms underlying disease and immune regulation.

A central goal of my research is translation, enabling the rational design of mRNA- and protein-based therapeutics and vaccines. In parallel, I support scientific infrastructure by coordinating biomedical data platforms and AI initiatives. My work has been recognized with competitive grants, fellowships, and awards, including the Helmholtz High-Potentials Fellowship and the KI-Newcomer Award.