Christoph Bock

The Bock Lab, based at CeMM and at the AI Institute of the Medical University of Vienna, investigates single cells in their spatial and temporal context – as building blocks of organ function, drivers of human disease, and programmable cell-based therapies.

We pursue collaborative research at the interface of technology and biomedicine. Our goal is to advance the understanding and treatment of human diseases through innovative experimental and computational methods in areas such as cancer and immunology. We work along five main directions:

• Single-cell biology. Epigenetic cell states contribute broadly to the regulation of human organs. As part of the Human Cell Atlas, we use single-cell and spatial sequencing to dissect their role in tissue homeostasis and pathogenesis.

• Biotechnology. Groundbreaking discoveries are often enabled by new technology. We develop and apply innovative methods in the areas of single-cell sequencing, CRISPR screening, epigenome editing, and synthetic biology.

• Bioinformatics. Computational methods are essential for data-driven biomedical research. We develop algorithms and software for large-scale data analysis, and we pursue clinical collaborations to establish medical impact.

• Machine learning. Huge datasets pose new analytical challenges. As part of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems, we develop methods for interpretable deep learning and artificial intelligence in biomedicine.

• Cell therapy. CAR T cells have shown dramatic efficacy for blood cancers and spearhead a broader shift toward personalized cell-based therapies. We use high-throughput technology to design synthetic immune cells as therapeutics.

We are a team of wet-lab and computational researchers who combine experimental immunology and cancer biology with bioinformatics and machine learning, epigenetics and bioengineering, and a strong focus on technology development – with a translational angle and in collaboration with clinical researchers. We are strongly committed to training junior scientists for leadership careers in biomedical research. PhD students and postdocs in our lab won prestigious fellowships and prizes, and went on to principal investigator positions at leading universities and research institutes.

Christoph Bock is a Principal Investigator at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Professor of Medical Informatics and Head of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at the Medical University of Vienna. Christoph Bock is also scientific coordinator of the Biomedical Sequencing Facility of CeMM and MedUni Vienna, member of the Human Cell Atlas Organizing Committee, fellow of the European Lab for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), and elected board member of the Young Academy in the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

He has received important research awards, including an ERC Starting Grant (2016-2021), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2021-2026), the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society (2009), the Overton Prize of the International Society for Computational Biology (2017), and the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2022). He has been included in the global list of “Highly Cited Researchers” by Clarivate Analytics (ISI Web of Science) each year since 2019. He co-founded Myllia Biotechnology, a Vienna-based startup company that develops and applies single-cell methods for high-throughput biology and drug discovery.

1. Schaefer M, Peneder P#, Malzl D, Peycheva M, Burton J, Hakobyan A, Sharma V, Krausgruber T, Menche J, Tomazou E, Bock C* (2024). Multimodal learning of transcriptomes and text enables interactive single-cell RNA-seq data exploration with natural-language chats. Manuscript submitted. (preprint on bioRxiv)

2. Fortelny N, Farlik M#*, [33 middle authors], Decker T#, Müller M#, Bock C* (2024). JAK-STAT signaling maintains homeostasis in T cells and macrophages. Nature Immunology 5, 847-859. (published paper; Research Briefing in Nature Immunology)

3. Moorlag S, Folkman L#, ter Horst R#, Krausgruber T#, [19 middle authors], Netea MG*, Bock C* (2024). Multi-omics analysis of innate and adaptive responses to BCG vaccination reveals epigenetic cell states that predict trained immunity. Immunity 57, 171-187 e114. (published paper; Research Highlight in Nature)

4. Datlinger P, Rendeiro AF#, Boenke T, Senekowitsch M, Krausgruber T, Barreca D, Bock C* (2021). Ultra-high-throughput single-cell RNA sequencing and perturbation screening with combinatorial fluidic indexing. Nature Methods 18, 635-642. (published paper)

5. Krausgruber T, Fortelny N#, [8 middle authors], Bock C* (2020). Structural cells are key regulators of organ-specific immune response. Nature 583, 296-302. (published paper; News & Views in Nature; News & Views in Nature Reviews Nephrology; Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Immunology)

6. Klughammer J, Kiesel B#, [50 middle authors], Woehrer A#, Bock C (2018). The DNA methylation landscape of glioblastoma disease progression shows extensive heterogeneity in time and space. Nature Medicine 24, 1611-1624. (published paper)

7. Datlinger P, Schmidl C, Rendeiro A, Krausgruber T, Traxler P, Klughammer J, Schuster L, Kuchler A, Alpar D, Bock C* (2017). Pooled CRISPR screening with single-cell transcriptome readout. Nature Methods, 14, 297-301. (published paper; News & Views in Nature Methods; News & Views in Nature Biotechnology)

8. Farlik M, Halbritter F#, Müller F#, [12 middle authors], Frontini M*, Bock C* (2016). DNA methylation dynamics of human hematopoietic stem cell differentiation. Cell Stem Cell 19, 808-822. (published paper)

9. Mass E, Ballesteros I#, Farlik M#, Halbritter F#, [8 middle authors], Beyer M#, Bock C#, Geissmann F* (2016). Specification of tissue-resident macrophages during organogenesis. Science 353, 6304. (published paper; Preview in Immunity) 

10. Bock C, Kiskinis E#, Verstappen G#, [8 middle authors], Eggan K*, Meissner A* (2011). Reference Maps of human ES and iPS cell variation enable high-throughput characterization of pluripotent cell lines. Cell 144, 439-452. (published paper; Research Highlights in Nature Methods, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Reviews Genetics)

*corresponding author; #shared first / shared last author

Please see the Bock Lab website and Christoph Bock’s Google Scholar profile for a more complete list.