Nikolai Hecker

Nikolai Hecker is a Senior Bioinformatician at the UK Dementia Research Institute who automates omics data analysis using robust pipelines and agentic AI. During his past research at VIB-KU Leuven, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, and the University of Copenhagen, he developed and employed comparative genomics, spatial transcriptomics, single-cell multiomics, RNA secondary structure, and deep learning approaches. His research characterised and compared genomic enhancers across mammalian and avian brain cell types, and linked convergent gene loss to several mammalian phenotypes.