Nils Kölling (Koelling)
Oxford, UK
Genomics · Computational Biology · Machine Learning
Since 2023 I have been working in the AI and Digital Research organisiation of Research and Early Development in Novo Nordisk, heading up the Computational and Statistical Genomics department within their Human Genetics area.
From 2019—2023 I worked at Genomics plc, a genomics biotech founded by scientists from the University of Oxford. At Genomics plc, I worked on generating and interpreting genetic association data for drug target discovery and precision health and led the Therapeutics Data Science team.
Before, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford with Professor Andrew Wilkie and Professor Anne Goriely at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), and Professor Gil McVean at the Oxford Big Data Institute (BDI). I was also a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in Wolfson College.
My academic research focused on leveraging methods such as single-cell RNA-seq and whole-genome sequencing to understand and diagnose human disease. At the WIMM, I studied this question in the context of craniosynostosis, a rare disease affecting about 1 in 2,000 children in the UK. In addition, I worked on processing and interpreting data generated from targeted sequencing experiments such as smMIP and amplicon sequencing, for which I developed a pipeline called amplimap.
I obtained my PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Cambridge, working in the research group of Professor Ewan Birney at the European Bioinformatics Institute. There, I studied natural genetic variation associated with gene expression levels (eQTLs) and wrote my thesis on the Quantitative genetics of gene expression during fruit fly development.