Frank Förster

Frank Förster is a computational biologist affiliated with the Department for Bioinformatics at the Justus-Liebig-University Gießen since 2019. He previously held positions at the Fraunhofer IME-BR (2017-2019) and served as a Lecturer at the University of Würzburg (2010-2017), where he also completed his PhD (summa cum laude) in 2007-2010. His research spans bioinformatics, genomics, and molecular biology with a focus on tardigrades, carnivorous plants, and microbiota analysis.

Education

• Diploma in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Hamburg (1999-2007)
• PhD (summa cum laude) in Bioinformatics, University of Würzburg (2007-2010)

Research Interests

• Phylogenetics and RNA secondary structure analysis
• Genome and transcriptome assembly
• Stress adaptation mechanisms in extremophiles
• Computational tools for metagenomic and microbiota studies
• Venom system evolution and characterization
• Plant carnivory genomic basis

Scientific Contributions

• Developed bioinformatic tools like AliTV, chloroExtractor, and microPIECE for genome/transcriptome analysis
• Published extensively on tardigrade stress response, plant genomics, and microbiome defense systems
• Debated horizontal gene transfer in tardigrades and ITS2 database expansions
• Explored venom composition trade-offs in wasp spiders and chloroplast genome tools