Stefan Semrau, PhD

Dr. Semrau leads NYSCF’s computational biology team, where he develops and applies advanced tools to unravel the role of genetics in disease and improve the stem cell models of the various diseases we research. He joined NYSCF in 2022.

Dr. Semrau is an expert in statistical physics, biophysics, systems biology, cell biology, and machine learning. As a PhD student at Leiden University, he developed several new data analysis methods, including one for tracking single molecules in live cells. He then completed his postdoctoral studies at MIT, where he pioneered a method for studying genetic variants in single cells as well as how stem cells can turn into other cell types. Subsequently, he led an independent group at Leiden University focused on human embryonic development and analysis of genomic data. After obtaining tenure at Leiden University, he went on sabbatical in the immuno-oncology group of Regeneron pharmaceuticals where he established a gold standard pipeline for analyzing single cell data.

In his role at NYSCF, Dr. Semrau is aiming to leverage NYSCF’s automation capabilities and biobank to discover the genetic underpinnings of human diseases. His team is also developing novel computational approaches to improve how NYSCF creates various cell types from stem cells, in turn allowing more realistic disease models.