Dr. Tobias Renahan (né Theska)
Office C429
Email: tobias.theska [at] uni-tuebingen.de
Research Interests
- Representation Learning for Precision Medicine
- Patient Clustering and Disease Subtyping
- Genomics and Transcriptomics
- Comparative Anatomy and Geometric Morphometrics
Current Project
- Using large biobank data and cutting-edge machine-learning algorithms, I am working to find meaningful joint representations of genomic information and electronic health records (EHRs), that can be used to improve downstream biomedical analyses like patient stratification, disease subtyping, and risk prediction.
Academic Degrees
- Ph.D. in Biology, University of Tübingen, 2023.
Thesis: Disentangling the Evolution of a Developmental Switch Network that Regulates Phenotypic Plasticity in a Morphological Novelty: a Nematode Evo-Devo Perspective - M.Sc. in Evolution, Ecology, and Systematics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany, 2018.
Thesis: Vertebral developmental morphology in batrachian amphibians - B.Sc. in Biology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany, 2015.
Thesis: Ontogeny of the direct-developing West African caecilian Idiocranium russeli (Lissamphibia: Gymnophiona: Indotyphlidae)
Fellowships and Awards
- Reinhold-and-Maria-Teufel Prize for outstanding doctoral achievements in Biology
- Postdoctoral Fellowship in AI & Data Science awarded by the University of Tübingen and Boehringer Ingelheim
- Master’s Award of the German Zoological Society (DZG e.V.) for an outstanding Master’s Thesis in Zoology
- Doctoral Fellowship in the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) “From Molecules to Organisms” awarded by the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen
Publications
- Theska T, Renahan T & Sommer RJ
Starvation resistance in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus requires a conserved supplementary nuclear receptor
Zoological Letters (2024), 10(1), 7. - Theska T & Sommer RJ
Feeding-structure morphogenesis in “rhabditid” and diplogastrid nematodes is not controlled by a conserved genetic module
Evolution & Development (2024), e12471. - Werner MS, Loschko T, King T, Reich S, Theska T, Franz-Wachtel M, Macek B & Sommer RJ
Histone 4 lysine 5/12 acetylation enables developmental plasticity of Pristionchus mouth form
Nature Communications (2023), 14, 2095. - Sun S*, Theska T*, Witte H, Ragsdale E & Sommer RJ
The oscillating Mucin-type protein DPY-6 has a conserved role in nematode mouth and cuticle formation
Genetics (2022), 220(3): iyab233.
*co-first author - Kanzaki N, Herrmann M, Weiler C, Röseler W, Theska T, Berger J, Rödelsperger C & Sommer RJ
Nine new Pristionchus (Nematoda: Diplogastridae) species from China
Zootaxa (2021), 4943(1), zootaxa-4943. - Theska T, Sieriebriennikov B, Wighard SS, Werner MS & Sommer RJ
Geometric morphometrics of microscopic animals as exemplified by model nematodes
Nature Protocols (2020), 15, 2611-2644 (2020) - Rödelsperger C, Athanasouli M, Lenuzzi M, Theska T, Sun S, Dardiry M, Wighard S, Hu W, Sharma DR & Sommer RJ
Crowdsourcing and the feasibility of manual gene annotation: A pilot study in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus
Scientific Reports (2019), 9, 18789. - Theska T, Wilkinson M, Gower DJ & Müller H
Musculoskeletal development of the Central African caecilian Idiocranium russeli (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Indotyphlidae) and its bearing on the re-evolution of larvae in caecilian amphibians
Zoomorphology (2019), 138, 137-158 (2019). - Wipfler B, Theska T & Predel R
Mantophasmatodea from the Richtersveld in South Africa with the description of two new genera and species
ZooKeys (2018), 746:137-160.