Ready to unlock the Secrets of Multimodal Biomedical Data?
Apply Now for the Interpretable Machine Learning Summer School!

The future of life science research is being rewritten by massive machine learning models — and you can be at the forefront of that transformation.

This summer, join a selected group of ambitious scientists and dive into the cutting edge of interpretable machine learning. Discover how to unlock powerful insights from complex data types — from single-cell biology to radiological imaging to natural language.

But this isn't just about theory. You'll work side by side with world-class researchers in hands-on, interdisciplinary projects using real-world multimodal datasets. Explore how machine learning can reveal hidden patterns with real translational impact, and help shape the future of medical research.

Expect mind-expanding lectures. Intense workshops. Big questions. Bold ideas. And a collaborative environment where innovation thrives.

Whether you're a budding computational biologist, data scientist, or clinical researcher — if you’re passionate about making machine learning interpretable and impactful, this is your moment.

Spots are limited — apply now and be part of the next wave of translational research!

Who Can Apply?

You are a passionate PhD student or postdoctoral researcher eager to work at the intersection of cutting-edge data science and biomedical discovery?

We welcome applicants from two complementary backgrounds:

  • Bioinformatics, machine learning, or data science, with a keen interest and some hands-on experience in analyzing biological or medical data.
  • Experimental biology or translational medicine, with a strong track record of performing your own data analyses using bioinformatics or machine learning methods.

If you’re excited about bridging disciplines and unlocking insights from complex biomedical data, and you have solid programming skills in Python, we’d love to have you on board.

Content and Agenda

Content

Increasingly large machine learning models are transforming how research is done in the life sciences. Such models enable addressing research questions with complex data modalities, and further to jointly consider multiple such data modalities to this end. While such approaches show impressive capabilities to establish non-trivial input-output relationships, interpretation of the underlying models remains a challenge.

Our summer school aims at bridging this gap by covering interpretable machine learning approaches to study various data modalities encountered and integrated in translational research projects. Specifically, we plan to consider natural language-, radiological- and molecular imaging data. The summer school will comprise input lectures and integrated project work that will be supervised by invited lecturers and their teams.

Specifically, we will cover lectures on interpretable models of single-cell biology, radiological data and natural language. These lectures will introduce basic and advanced methodological concepts and their application in translational projects. The summer school participants will apply these concepts in hands-on workshops on multimodal datasets covering the data modalities introduced by the lecturers with the goal to identify potentially novel intermodal patterns of translational relevance.
 

Course Structure
  • Sep 16 - 18: input lectures by trainers (am), teamwork (pm)
  • Sep 19 consolidation, presentation of results and closing
     
Detailed Agenda

Day 1 - September 16

09.00 - 10.00 amIntroduction round/activity participants & trainers
10.00 - 12.00 amInput lecture: Interpretable Machine Learning Models for Single-Cell Biology (Claassen)
12.00 - 01.00 pmLunch break
01.00 - 01.30 pmIntroduction to summer school data set(s) & definition of teamwork goals
01.30 - 02.00 pmDefinition teams 
02.00 - 06.00 pmTeamwork interpretable machine learning models for single cell biology
06.00 - 07.00 pmDinner
07.00 - Evening activity

Day 2 - September 17

09.00 - 12.00 amInput lecture: t.b.a (Ritter)
12.00 - 01.00 pmLunch break
01.00 - 03.00 pmTeam activity (e.g. hiking)
03.00 - 06.00 pmTeamwork interpretable machine learning models for radiology
06.00 - 07.00 pmDinner
07.00 - Evening activity

Day 3 - September 18

09.00 - 12.00 amInput lecture: t.b.a (Eickhoff)
12.00 - 01.00 pmLunch break
01.00 - 06.00 pmTeamwork large language models for interpretation 
06.00 - 07.00 pmDinner
07.00 - Evening activity

Day 4 - September 19

09.00 - 12.00 amConsolidation results and preparation of final presentation
12.00 - 01.00 pmLunch break
01.00 - 05.00 pmConcluding symposium and discussion
05.00 - 05.30 pmWrap-up and departure

Teacher

Prof. Dr. Manfred Claassen

https://claassenlab.github.io/

Manfred Claassen is a full professor for Clinical Bioinformatics and Translational Machine Learning in Single-Cell Biology and he is a PI in the Excellence Cluster 'Machine Learning – New Perspectives for Science'. He has pioneered methods for supervised analysis of single-cell and spatial biology, enabling end-to-end association of such data with disease phenotypes.

Prof. Dr. Carsten Eickhoff

https://health-nlp.com/

Carsten Eickhoff is a full Professor of E-Health and Medical Data Science and he is a PI in the Excellence Cluster 'Machine Learning – New Perspectives for Science'. His research combines Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval with medical applications. He focuses on AI-driven analysis of medical texts to support clinical decision-making.

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Ritter

https://hertie.ai/machine-learning

Kerstin Ritter is a full professor of Machine Learning for Clinical Neuroscience and a director at the Hertie Institute for AI in Brain Health. She is PI in the Excellence Cluster “Machine Learning – New Perspectives for Science” and the Tübingen AI Center. Her research focuses on using advanced AI methods to assess brain health through diverse data types, including neuroimaging, clinical, genetic, and behavioral data.

Venue, Registration & Organization

Venue

Marchtal Abbey Education Center 
(Bildungshaus Kloster Obermarchtal)
2/1 Klosteranlage
89611 Obermarchtal
Germany

https://www.kloster-obermarchtal.de/
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hA1Wy7VQxNf5nPjp6

Accomodation

The registration fee includes full board accommodation at the Marchtal Abbey Education Center from September 15 to 19. Catering begins with dinner on the evening of September 15 and concludes with afternoon coffee on September 19.

Registration
Registration feet.b.a.
Registration deadlineJuly 1, 2025
Payment deadline14 days after receipt of invoice

Data Protection & Privacy Policy

If you apply for the IBMI Summer School 2025 (the 'event') we collect, store and process your personal data for the following purposes:

  • Selection and admission to this event
  • Financial administration of this event
  • Organisation and implementation of this event

The collected information is used to process your application and registration, to manage and take payment of the fees, to coordinate accommodation, to manage required bookings, organize meals with the appropriate supplies of food for various dietary requirements, to gain feedback, and to contact you until the event has been fully processed. You declare consent that we may pass on your data required for bookings and reservations to third parties who are necessary for the organization of the event (e.g. to the conference hotel).

Your data will be deleted as soon as the purpose of the processing has been fulfilled, unless another legal retention period applies. You thereby declare that you have been informed about the information obligations (right to information / correction / deletion etc.) in accordance with Chapter 3 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and have taken note of them. You also declare that this declaration of consent is made on a voluntary basis. 

You are also informed that you can revoke your consent without damaging consequences for you at any time informally with effect for the future. In the case of revocation, the University of Tübingen will delete the data stored by the University of Tübingen. You can address your declaration of revocation to: 
mailto:sekretariatspam prevention@ibmi.uni-tuebingen.de

Please also have a look at the Data Privacy Statement of the University of Tübingen.

Photos will be taken throughout the event. These might be used by the University of Tübingen for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media or in any third party publication.