2026 CeMM, Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Host Organization: CeMM, Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Website: https://cemm.at/ ; https://cemm.at/research/groups/core-groups/christoph-bock/research
Organization Profile: 299 CeMM members, 49 nationalities
CeMM is an interdisciplinary research institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences committed to advancing the understanding of human diseases through basic and biomedical research. Located in a tailor-made building in the midst of the campus of the Medical University of Vienna, CeMM is dedicated to its mission statement to pioneer science that nurtures the precise, personalized, predictive and preventive medicine of the future.
CeMM currently hosts 9 principal investigators, 12 adjunct principal investigators and 2 facilities. Focusing on medically relevant questions, CeMM researchers concentrate on human biology and diseases like cancer and inflammation/immune disorders and rare diseases. An additional focus lies on aging research. In support of scientific pursuits and medical needs, CeMM provides access to cutting-edge technologies and has established a strategic interest in personalized medicine.
City: Vienna
Internship format: In-person
Internship Department: Christoph Bock lab.
Department Description: 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.
Project description: AI-driven enhancer design and single-cell analysis for CAR T cell immunotherapy
Project outline: Programmed cells have great potential as “biological computers”: they can sense their environment and execute context-specific functions such as killing or repair. We have developed an in vitro and in vivo screening platform that enables rapid multi-task optimization of CAR T cell immunotherapy for a broad range of applications (Datlinger, Pankevich, Arnold et al. 2025 Nature) and are preparing these CRISPR-boosted CAR T cells for clinical trials at the Medical University of Vienna. We also develop AI methods for chat-based analysis of single-cell profiling data (Schaefer, Peneder et al. 2025 Nature Biotechnology). In ongoing work that the visiting student will actively contribute to, we employ AI-driven enhancer design and cell engineering to develop intelligent therapeutics for solid cancers and ageing-related diseases.
Number of Opening(s): 1
Work Hours and Internship Start/End Dates: (Monday to Friday, June 15 –August 7, 2026): Five days, 35-40 hours a week.
Work Attire: Casual
Local language: German
Local language level needed: Not required
Additional desired intern qualifications: Computational student with expertise in generative AI methods & biomedical applications. Good programming skills (typically in Python).
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