Teaching computers to think and machines to see

The cluster of excellence Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science focuses on developments in the field of machine learning and the effects it may have on widely differing areas of science and academia. The researchers involved are exploring possible applications in  subject areas, from medicine, to earth sciences, to social sciences.

At the heart of the cluster’s research are algorithms which recognize complex structures and causal links in data sets, and methods to quantify uncertainties in data-driven scientific models. The cluster is also exploring techniques which enable the researchers to better understand and interpret phases of machine learning – so that they can intervene and direct them. Additionally, the researchers are investigating the ethical and scientific theory issues which arise when algorithms take on an ever-greater role in unlocking new scientific and academic knowledge.

A great challenge for machine learning is to reproduce the robustness of human intelligence in artificial systems. The collaborative research center CRC 1233 – Robust Vision – Inference Principles and Neural Mechanisms is tackling the issues at the very foundation of how biological organisms see – and how machines can learn from them.

In cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, researchers in the Robust Vision center seek to better understand the principles and algorithms underlying the calculations of biological visual systems that enable robust vision. To this end, the researchers take an integrated approach, using methods from neuroscience, computer vision research, and machine learning. They are concentrating on the fields in which there are fundamental differences between the neurobiology of vision and the current algorithms of machine vision.

The Tübingen AI Center, our competence center for machine learning, provides research groups at the University and at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems with a joint organization in which to develop robust learning systems. . The researchers are teaching algorithms to deal with external and unforeseen influences. At the same time, the algorithms’ output needs to become more predictable and transparent. The Center seeks to build a bridge between basic and applied research in the field.

A research alliance for artificial intelligence

Tübingen has grown dynamically in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and is considered one of the leading places for research in these areas worldwide. A visible sign of this strength is the Cyber Valley initiative, established in 2016. It is a network of researchers in both science and industry who are working together to investigate and develop the potential of artificial intelligence. Along with the Universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart, the Max Planck Society and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the state of Baden-Württemberg and many global industrial enterprises are also on board.

Additional projects

• ERC Consolidator Grant ANUBIS: Advanced numerics for uncertainty and Bayesian inference in science (starting 09/2024)
• ERC Consolidator Grant DeepCoMechTome: Using deep learning to understand computations in neural circuits with connectome-constrained mechanistic models
• ERC Starting Grant ConSequentIA: Continual and sequential learning for artificial intelligence
• ERC Starting Grant LEGO-3D: Learning generative 3D scene models for training and validating intelligent systems
• ERC Starting Grant NextMechMod: Next generation mechanistic models of retinal interneurons

Focus on water, energy and the environment

Tübingen's geoscience and environment researchers are investigating anthropogenic interventions in nature and the environment worldwide – and the effects of this human activity on the Earth's ecosystems. Covering numerous fields of expertise ranging from geomicrobiology to environmental toxicology, the research area geo- and environmental sciences looks into diverse and complex questions. The spectrum extends from basic research to practical applications, from the functioning of biogeochemical processes to the sustainable use of raw materials. The researchers frequently focus on highly topical issues such as the availability of clean water, the development of new energy sources, the influence of a changing climate and the effects of pollution in the environment. Tübingen's geo- and environmental sciences are part of comprehensive international networks. 

As part of the German government’s Excellence Initiative, the University of Tübingen established an interdisciplinary Platform for Environmental Systems. This forum links the geosciences with the associated disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics and also involves economists and social scientists, lawyers and ethicists. Close cooperation with the nearby universities of Stuttgart and Hohenheim broadens the spectrum to include engineering and agricultural sciences as well as socioeconomics. Members of this network conduct research in cooperation with environmental authorities, consulting firms and national research laboratories. With the Environmental Systems platform, the University of Tübingen is contributing to the search for solutions to global challenges relating to climate change, water supplies and pollution. 

Additional distinctions

• Humboldt professorship (2017) for Prof. Dr. Largus T. Angenent, geosciences

Tracing the early paths of humankind

Few things capture our imagination like the origin of mankind. World-renowned researchers at the University's Institute of Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archaeology and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment Tübingen are seeking the paths walked by early humans. In a special alliance of disciplines, a number of University institutes have joined forces under the umbrella of the Tübingen Center for Archaeology (TZA), an interfaculty institution dedicated to archaeological research spanning the entire arc from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. All these researchers benefit from the new perspectives of other disciplines; their collaboration also enables them to employ the latest scientific methods of analysis.

Paleoanthropologists from Tübingen have made several groundbreaking discoveries in recent years. Skeletal remains of a previously unknown primate species found in the Allgäu region of southern Germany indicated the primate could walk upright. Dubbed Danuvius guggenmosi, the find challenges previous hypotheses on the evolution of the upright gait. And some of the oldest pieces of figurative art have been excavated in caves in the Swabian Jura – animal figures, flutes and jewelry made of mammoth ivory and bone. These pieces, created during the last Ice Age some 40,000 years ago, give evidence of the art, music and religious beliefs of early mankind.

In the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP), the University of Tübingen has entered into a highly productive collaboration with the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. The SHEP comprises seven working groups, which are headed by professors from the University. Their work focuses on the biological and cultural evolution of humans. They are investigating the complex relationships between biology, culture and the environment as factors in human development, bringing them together in an integrative approach. For this, the researchers employ a wide range of methods from artifact analysis to geochemical and geochronological methods and reconstructions of past environmental conditions. This careful processing of information enables fossil finds to provide information on earlier ecosystems. The researchers of the SHEP are active worldwide and involved in numerous important excavations; time and again they attract considerable attention with groundbreaking publications.

The central methodological approach in research into human evolution and archaeology is archaeometry – the use of scientific techniques to determine the origin, age or authenticity of archaeological finds or to solve questions concerning the technical or cognitive development of mankind. This includes dating methods such as the radiocarbon method and dendrochronology as well as the latest chemical, physical and biological analyses to provide information about ancient materials. The Institute for Archaeological Sciences and the Competence Center Archaeometry - Baden-Württemberg (CCA-BW) at the University of Tübingen specialize in archaeometric methods and their further development. The University also benefits from collaboration with the Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry (CEZA) in Mannheim.

The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities supports a long-term project in palaeoanthropology – The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans (ROCEEH) – run by archaeologists from the University in cooperation with colleagues from the Senckenberg institute in Frankfurt. The researchers are investigating the conditions under which different forms of human expansion took place, and the effects it had in Africa and Eurasia in the period between 3 million years and 20,000 years ago. The aim is to gain an understanding of the biological and cultural history of mankind in its evolutionary, historical, social and ecological dimensions.

Additional institutions, projects and distinctions

• Research unit Words, bones, genes, tools: tracking linguistic, cultural and biological trajectories of the human past (FOR 2237)
• Leibniz Prize (2021) for Prof. Dr. Katerina Harvati-Papatheodorou, palaeoanthropology
• ERC Advanced Grant FIRSTSTEPS: Our first steps to Europe: Pleistocene homo sapiens dispersals, adaptations and interactions in South-East Europe
• ERC Consolidator Grant REVIVE: Tracing hominin occupations of and migrations through the Levant: reviving Paleolithic research in Lebanon
• ERC Starting Grant PROTOPEST: Infectious disease outbreaks as contributors to socio-cultural transformations in the 2nd millennium BCE

Investigating pathogens – protecting people

Researching the threats posed by microbial pathogens, while developing effective drugs to combat them, is the goal of the Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection Medicine at the University of Tübingen (IMIT). IMIT integrates biology expertise regarding pathogens with the medical experience of infections. The institute’s areas of core research are in the physiology of bacteria, antibiotics research, and infection and microbiome research. The aim is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, also in order to prevent the spread of hard-to-treat pathogens. IMIT works closely with the Max Planck Institute for Biology.

IMIT’s outstanding profile and its collaborative work with other local institutions were behind the decision to approve Tübingen as a location for the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). All partners in the center cooperate to promote translational research and to develop new methods for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Among other things, Tübingen’s researchers contribute expertise regarding tropical diseases and the development of antibiotics.

The goal of the researchers in the University of Tübingen’s cluster of excellence Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections (CMFI) is to find new strategies to combat infections beyond broad-spectrum antibiotics. The researchers at CMFI study the microbiome and analyze the interactions of the microorganisms with each other and with their host. Instead of killing off the pathogens along with many other organisms, their aim is to develop specifically-targeted agents which will have a positive effect on the microbiome overall. The cluster brings together research from the University, the University Hospitals, the Max Planck Institute for Biology, and the DZIF in an integrative approach. Medical microbiology is mainly concerned with pathogens as the cause of infections, while molecular microbiology usually looks at individual mechanisms and metabolic processes. The cluster combines both and also involves environmental microbiologists and bioinformaticians in order to identify and research useful, "probiotic" bacteria and to understand microbial communities in all their complexity. From in-vitro models to controlled human colonization studies, participants in the cluster are investigating how the microbiome is able to fend off invading pathogens. Novel microbiome-specific interventions will be tested in preclinical and early clinical studies.

New ways to beat infections

The Institute of Tropical Medicine, Travel Medicine and Human Parasitology is also an important institution in Tübingen's infection research. It has been selected as a center of excellence by the state of Baden-Württemberg and is one of the world's leading institutes for research into often fatal tropical diseases. One area of core research here is the development and clinical testing of new drugs and vaccines to treat Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria. The institute also conducts research into viral hepatitis, multi-resistant tuberculosis and a variety of worm infections. One of its key partners  is the Albert Schweitzer Hospital and Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné (CERMEL) in Gabon.

Additional institutions and projects

• ERC Starting Grant BugDrug: Bugs as drugs: Understanding microbial interaction networks to prevent and treat infections
• ERC Starting Grant gutMAP: Gut microbiome-mediated activities of psychotropic drugs
• ERC Starting Grant PowerMit: Leveraging the impact of gut microbes to advance the efficacy of CAR-T cell immunotherapy
• ERC Starting Grant SOAR: Systematic triangulation of pathobiont-host-interactions

• Center for Applied Geoscience (ZAG)
• Center for Light-Matter Interaction, Sensors & Analytics (LISA+)
• Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP)
• Center for Quantum Science (CQ)
• Cognitive Science Center (CSC)
• Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics

• Bernstein-Zentrum für Computerbasierte Neurowissenschaften Tübingen (BCCN)

• Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker-Stiftungsprofessur für Theorie und Geschichte der Wissenschaften

• Comprehensive Infectious Disease Center Tübingen (CIDiC)

• Deutsches Konsortium für Translationale Krebsforschung (DKTK)

• Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (DZIF)

• LEAD Graduate School & Research Network

• Interfakultäres Institut für Biochemie (IFIB)

• Interfakultäres Institut für Biomedizinische Informatik (IBMI)

• Interfakultäres Institut für Mikrobiologie und Infektionsmedizin Tübingen (IMIT)

• Internationales Zentrum für Ethik in den Wissenschaften (IZEW)

• Interfakultäres Zentrum für Pharmakogenomik und Arzneimittelforschung (IZEPHA)

• Kompetenzzentrum für Archeometrie – Baden-Wuerttemberg (CCA-BW)

• Proteomzentrum Tübingen (PCT)

• Südwestdeutsches Tumorzentrum Tübingen-Stuttgart (CCC)

• Werner Reichardt Centrum für Integrative Neurowissenschaften (CIN)

• Tübinger Interfakultäres Zentrum für Archäologie (TZA)

• Zentrum für Quantitative Biologie (QBiC)

• Cyber Valley
• Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)
• Deutsches Zentrum für Diabetesforschung e. V.
• Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (CIDRE)
• Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE)
• Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratorium der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Tübingen
• Hertie-Institut für klinische Hirnforschung (HIH)
• Informations-, Kommunikations- und Medienzentrum (IKM)
• Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM)
• Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik Tübingen
• Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie Tübingen
• Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme Tübingen
• Naturwissenschaftliches und Medizinisches Institut Reutlingen (NMI)
• Next Generation Sequencing Competence Center Tübingen
• Robert-Bosch-Institut für Klinische Pharmakologie Stuttgart
• Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP)

The facility is centered around the Nanostructure Laboratory, which provides a large variety of techniques and methods, including both, standard methods for sample fabrication & characterization, as well as advanced unique research tools.

The concept of LISA⁺ is to coordinate the human resources, technical facilities and research topics for:

1. efficient and professional use of present resources,
2. coherent planning of sustainable development,
3. expert training and advice,
4. optimizing knowledge transfer between users within LISA⁺ and external partners, incuding industry.

Member Labs   Directors board   Instrumentation   Methods   Services   Team   Teaching   Publications

Dear prospective collaborator,

Welcome to QBiC’s website!
The Quantitative Biology Center (QBiC) is in operation since 2012 as the central unit for bioinformatics and omics technologies of the University of Tübingen, its Medical Faculty and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. Through partnering with ten on-campus core facilities, we offer services on the full range of omics technologies. The data generation is complemented by integrated bioinformatics analyses, and all high-throughput data is managed centrally. QBiC’s unique privacy-preserving data management concept adheres strictly to the FAIR guidelines and is used as the data management infrastructure for all QBiC projects.

Please take the opportunity to browse our website and get in touch with us to learn more about our services.

We would be pleased to support you in your on-going or upcoming data-driven research projects.

With kind regards,

Dr. Sven Nahnsen
QBiC Director