Hajk-Georg Drost

Dr. Hajk-Georg Drost is a Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator in the Division of Computational Biology at the University of Dundee's School of Life Sciences. He leads the Digital Biology Group, focusing on integrating machine learning and high-performance computing with biological research to advance healthcare innovation. Previously, he established a Computational Biology group at the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen (2019-2024) and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge's Sainsbury Laboratory.

His research explores:

• Evolutionary transcriptomics and phylotranscriptomic patterns across species
• Machine learning applications in genomics and proteomics
• Development of bioinformatics tools (DIAMOND, myTAI) for tree-of-life scale analyses
• Gene regulatory networks and transposable element dynamics

His publications demonstrate a consistent focus on evolutionary constraints in development, with recent work expanding into single-cell resolution analyses of developmental diseases. Awards include:

• Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship (2024)
• Fellow, Cambridge Philosophical Society
• Postdoctoral Affiliate, Trinity College Cambridge

He currently supervises PhD students including Stefan Manolache and leads projects funded by the Royal Society and others, focusing on protein alignment infrastructure and developmental disease research. His lab develops open-source software for genomic analyses and maintains active collaborations across Europe.