RG Rödiger - Overview
Prof. Dr. Stefan Rödiger leads a working group at Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), where his research integrates molecular biology, bioinformatics, and functional bioanalytics to advance personalized medicine, diagnostic technologies, and biomedical data science.
His work spans:
- Personalized Medicine & Pharmacology: Investigating molecular mechanisms in human cancer cells, including the role biomarkers like gamma H2AX, DSF70 and miRNAs in diagnostics and therapeutics. Key findings include novel insights into drug interactions and their effects on DNA damage, particularly in cancer, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
- Functional Bioanalytics & Statistical Bioinformatics: Developing advanced bioanalytical methods for biomarker discovery and validation, with a focus on microRNA-based diagnostics for conditions like lymphoma classification using bioimage informatics (e.g., vision transformer networks). His work includes the development of microbead-based assays for detecting bacterial genes and multiplex DNA technologies, which enable highly sensitive and specific detection of biomarkers in complex samples.
- Point-of-Care Diagnostics & Laboratory Diagnostics: Pioneering rapid, sensitive diagnostic tools, including qPCR and dPCR-based assays, which are crucial for quantifying low-abundance nucleic acids in clinical samples. These assays are particularly valuable for early cancer detection, infectious disease monitoring, and disorder diagnostics.
- Bioimage Informatics: Utilizing machine learning, including vision transformer networks, to classify lymphoma whole-slide pathology images. This work enhances diagnostic accuracy and supports personalized treatment strategies.
- Human Cell Models & Drug Testing: Utilizing genetically engineered primary-like human cells to model drug responses, particularly in conditions like pharmacy side effects and DNA damage caused by multiple drug interactions.
Key Contributions: As supervisor and corresponding author on numerous publications, Prof. Rödiger has made contributions in bioinformatics, biosensor development, and biomedical data analysis. His work includes:
- Bioinformatics: Applications of neural networks for detecting DNA double-strand breaks caused by drug interactions. He was authoring R packages like chipPCR for qPCR data preprocessing and countfitteR and biopixR for quantifying DNA double-strand breaks or other biomarkers and the DynamiR, a Python package to analyse miRNA expression patterns, facilitating high-throughput biological research.
- Biosensors & Diagnostics: Development of rapid prototyping technologies for nucleic acid-based diagnostics, enhancing sensitivity and specificity. Aptamers & Microfluidics: Innovations in aptamer-based assays for targeted biomarker detection and microfluidic platforms for high-throughput screening. Epitope-Mapping: Advances in epitope-mapping techniques to identify critical antigenic regions for therapeutic antibody development.
Professional Experience: Prof. Rödiger’s career has been marked by a strong focus on translational research, bridging academia and industry. He has held leadership positions at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, where he established and led the Computational Biomedicine working group. His work includes collaborations with international institutions, such as the University of Surrey in England, and industry partnerships like Attomol GmbH, Medipan GmbH and PolyAn GmbH to develop diagnostic tools. He is member of expert groups like DIN e.V. and MIQE guidelines.
His expertise extends to teaching and mentorship, where he has lectured on bioinformatics, statistics, bioanalytics and laboratory diagnostics at both bachelor’s and master’s levels. He has also conducted workshops on data science, emphasizing the importance of computational skills in modern biomedical research.
Teaching & Supervision: Prof. Rödiger has taught courses in bioanalytics and laboratory diagnostics while supervising numerous doctoral students in computational biomedicine, including:
- Ongoing Projects:
- MicroRNA biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases
- Vision transformer networks for lymphoma classification
- Modeling polypharmacy side effects using human cell systems
- Microparticle-based assays for biomarker detection
- Nucleic acid diagnostics with rapid prototyping technologies
Networking & Leadership: Prof. Rödiger has been helping in establishing research networks, including the Gesundheitscampus Brandenburg. He also leads the International Biotech Innovations Days (IBID), an open-access conference focusing on personalized medicine, bioanalytics, and bioinformatics.
Contact: For collaborations or inquiries, please visit: