Silja Heilmann

Silja Heilmann is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, where she leads research in biomedical data science with a focus on single-cell resolution live imaging data. She is also affiliated with the Morphogenesis and Differentiation Program at the same institution.

Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Niels Bohr Institute (University of Copenhagen), an M.S. in Biophysics, and a B.Sc. in Physics, all from the University of Copenhagen. Her research career began with theoretical work on microbial ecosystems during her PhD, then evolved through postdoctoral positions at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Biology.

Dr. Heilmann's research focuses on leveraging AI and computer vision for impactful research in Cancer, Stem cell, and Developmental Biology. Her work explores how spherically symmetric stem cell aggregates self-organize into complex structures and how cancer progression disrupts organ structure and symmetry. She addresses these questions through AI-powered image analysis, mathematical/statistical tools, and finite element modeling. Her current projects include detecting and characterizing metastatic cells in breast and colorectal cancer populations, and studying morphogenesis and cell differentiation in the developing pancreas.

Her publication record shows a strong trajectory from microbial ecology toward cancer and developmental biology, with increasing focus on pancreatic development and cancer metastasis using advanced image analysis techniques and computational modeling approaches.

• The Danish Council for Independent Research, Medical Sciences, Postdoc Fellowship (2017-2019)
• Lundbeck Foundation Postdoc Fellowship (2016-2018)
• Presidents Innovator award (2015)
• Cover paper in Cancer Research (2015)
• James S. MacDonnell Foundation Complex Systems Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2012-2015)

Dr. Heilmann has supervised multiple students across disciplines, including computer science master's and undergraduate students working on pancreatic imaging analysis, and medical students studying melanoma metastasis. Her research has been supported by prestigious fellowships from Danish research foundations and has resulted in publications in high-impact journals with significant citation counts.

She actively participates in the Morphogenesis and Differentiation Program at the University of Copenhagen, maintaining strong collaborations between computational and experimental biologists to translate advanced analytical approaches into biomedical discoveries.