Team

Robin Andersson, PhD – Principal Investigator

Robin Andersson is Associate Professor of Bioinformatics and Deputy Head of Department for Research at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on regulatory genomics, combining experimental genomics, computational biology, and machine learning to understand how noncoding DNA regulates gene expression and contributes to human disease. His laboratory develops methods for regulatory genomics to identify active regulatory elements, predict enhancer–gene interactions, uncover the sequence logic of gene regulation, and interpret the functional consequences of noncoding genetic variation.

Robin received his M.Sc. in Computer Science from Linköping University (Sweden) in 2004 and his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Uppsala University (Sweden) in 2010. He subsequently joined the laboratory of Prof. Albin Sandelin at the University of Copenhagen as a postdoctoral researcher, where he investigated transcriptional regulation and enhancer biology. In 2015, he was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, which enabled him to establish the Andersson Lab at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen.

Robin became a tenured Associate Professor of Bioinformatics in 2020. He served as Head of the Section for Computational and RNA Biology from 2024 to 2026 and was appointed Deputy Head of Department for Research in 2026. His group’s research has advanced our understanding of enhancers, promoters, and transcription initiation, and has led to widely used experimental and computational approaches for mapping regulatory elements, linking enhancers to their target genes, and interpreting noncoding genetic variation.

Xuening He – Postdoc

Xuening He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Life science from University of Science and Technology of China, a Master’s degree in Bioinformatics (computer science track) from University of Copenhagen, and a PhD in Bioinformatics from University of Copenhagen. Her work focuses on using interpretable machine learning models to understand the sequence determinants of promoters and enhancers.

Yifan Dai, PhD – Postdoc

Yifan holds a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Fudan University in China, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computational Biology from the University of Copenhagen.

His research focuses on the dynamics of gene regulation. During his Ph.D. in Sandelin’s group, he worked on identifying gene program changes underlying cancer microenvironment adaptation. He continued in the group as a postdoctoral fellow, studying selective RNA degradation through full-length RNA sequencing. Now, he works in Andersson’s lab, developing interpretable deep learning models of enhancer regulation.

Maddie Murphy – PhD student

Maddie Murphy holds a Master’s degree in Bioinformatics from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Her work focuses on modelling enhancer activity and enhnacer-to-gene regulatory interactions in single cells.

Natsuda Navamajiti – PhD student

Natsuda graduated from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering (Bioinformatics). Her work focuses on developing computational methods to resolve regulatory activities of enhancers and promoters using transcription start site data. Natsuda is part of the ENHPATHY Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) European Training Network.

Marta Greedy Escudero – PhD student

Marta holds a BSc in Biology from University of Barcelona and a MSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics from University of Copenhagen. Her work focuses on investigating mechanisms of robustness in gene regulation using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system.

Christian Vaagenso – Lab technician

Christian Vaagenso is a retired ice hockey professional and has work experience in the chemical industry. He is a lab technician at the Section for Computational and RNA Biology and is experienced in various lab techniques, including CAGE, ATAC-seq, PCR, qPCR, Western Blot, RACE and cloning.