Christoph Bock

{{Short description|German bioinformatician and principal investigator}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Christoph Bock

|image = Christoph_bock.png

|image_size =

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|birth_date =

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|nationality = German

|fields = Bioinformatics

|workplaces = Max Planck Institute for Informatics
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Medical University of Vienna
Broad Institute

|alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

|thesis_title = Computational Epigenetics

|thesis_url = https://domino.mpi-inf.mpg.de/imprs/imprspubl.nsf/80255f02006a559a80255ef20058920d/724659a79811274bc12578be0033081b!OpenDocument

|thesis_year = 2008

|doctoral_advisor = Thomas Lengauer

|awards = {{Plainlist|

| website = {{URL|https://cemm.at/research/groups/christoph-bock-group}}

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Christoph Bock is a German bioinformatician and principal investigator at the Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a visiting professor at the Medical University of Vienna.{{cite web|title=Christoph Bock Group|url=http://cemm.at/research/groups/christoph-bock-group/|website=cemm.at|accessdate=23 July 2017|language=en}}{{Google scholar id}}

Education

Bock carried out his undergraduate studies at the University of Mannheim, focusing on computer science and business information, with an emphasis on machine learning.{{cite journal|last1=Fogg|first1=Christiana N.|last2=Kovats|first2=Diane E.|last3=Berger|first3=Bonnie|title=2017 ISCB Overton Prize awarded to Christoph Bock|journal=PLOS Computational Biology|date= 2017|volume=13|issue=6|pages=e1005559|doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005559|pmid=28665945|pmc=5493286|bibcode=2017PLSCB..13E5559F |doi-access=free }}

Bock gained his PhD in 2008 from Saarland University for research carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics on computational epigenetics supervised by Thomas Lengauer.{{cite thesis|year=2008|first=Christoph|last=Bock|title=Computational Epigenetics|degree=PhD|url=https://domino.mpi-inf.mpg.de/imprs/imprspubl.nsf/80255f02006a559a80255ef20058920d/724659a79811274bc12578be0033081b!OpenDocument|website=mpg.de|accessdate=23 July 2017|language=en|publisher=Saarland University|oclc=472653426}}

Research and career

Following his PhD, he undertook postdoctoral research with Alexander Meissner at the Broad Institute, where he contributed to the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Project.

Bock joined CeMM as a principal investigator in 2012.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} His research focuses on the application of machine learning and biostatistics to computational epigenetics. He is also interested in the application of bioinformatics to epigenetic diagnosis and personalised medicine.{{cite web|title=Christoph Bock|url=https://www.iscb.org/ismbeccb2017-program/keynotes/christoph-bock|website=www.iscb.org|accessdate=23 July 2017}} Bock's lab has explored integrating technologies to efficiently assess the impact of many genes in gene regulation. His lab has combined CRISPR genome editing with single-cell RNA-seq to create the CROP-seq method, which enables high-throughput analysis of gene regulation.{{cite web|title=CRISPR meets single-cell sequencing in new screening method|url=https://phys.org/news/2017-01-crispr-single-cell-sequencing-screening-method.html|accessdate=23 July 2017}}

Beyond his work at CeMM, he has also been a principal investigator of BLUEPRINT, a member organisation of the International Human Epigenome Consortium.

=Awards and honors=

Bock was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal by the Max Planck Society in 2009: this award recognises outstanding PhD theses.{{cite web|title=Christoph Bock|url=http://www.medical-epigenomics.org/meg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&catid=82&Itemid=477|website=www.medical-epigenomics.org|accessdate=23 July 2017|language=en-gb}}

In 2017, Bock was awarded the Overton Prize by the International Society for Computational Biology, for his significant contributions to computational biology research.

{{As of|2017}}, Bock serves on the editorial board of the Genome Biology journal.{{cite web|title=Genome Biology|url=https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/about/editorial-board|website=Genome Biology|accessdate=23 July 2017|language=en}}

References