Jakob Wirbel is leading the Precision Microbial Genomics Team at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. Jakob studied molecular biotechnology at the Ruprecht-Karls-University in beautiful Heidelberg in Southern Germany. He then joined the team of Georg Zeller at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) for his doctoral studies, where he worked on statistical and machine learning tools for microbiome data. After obtaining his PhD, he moved to Stanford University in California, USA, where he joined the group of Ami Bhatt for his postdoctoral studies. Supported by a Quantitative Biology Fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Jakob became fascinated by the promise of long-read metagenomics to study the genomes of gut bacteria.
Other than science, Jakob enjoys hiking, climbing/bouldering, and biking. He is an avid reader of science-fiction literature and loves to explore (vegetarian) food of all cultures.