Title Dr. rer. nat.
monica.matchado(at)tum.de
Monica Steffi Matchado obtained both her bachelor's and master's degrees in India, majoring in Bioinformatics. Following her master's, she worked as a Junior Research Fellow at Ganga Hospital, where she was part of a medical team studying potential infection causes in intervertebral disc herniation. She later moved to Germany to pursue a PhD in Bioinformatics, focusing on the computational challenges in microbial data analysis, such as the limitations of studying 16S rRNA in terms of functional aspects. During her PhD, she co-developed a tool called Namco with one of her colleagues, which provides basic to advanced machine learning approaches for 16S rRNA data analysis. After successfully submitting her thesis in 2022, Steffi joined the Stecher Lab as the lead bioinformatician, where she plays a central role in driving the computational arm of various microbiome research projects. Her primary focus is on the computational characterization of bacterial and phage genomes, where she designs a customized computational workflow applies to uncover patterns in microbial communities
Funfact: Outside of her research, Steffi enjoys exploring the mountain landscapes of the Bavarian Alps and has a strong interest in traveling and discovering new cultures—a passion that mirrors her curiosity and enthusiasm in science.
2010-2014: Bachelor of Technolgy at Tamil Nadu Agricultural university, India
2016-2018: Master of Technolgy (M.Tech) at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, India
2019-2022: PhD in microbial computational analysis at Technical University of Munich, Germany
2023-2024: PostDoctoral researcher at Ludwig Maximillan University, Munich, Germany
2025-Current: Guest PostDoctoral researcher at Technical University of Munich, Germany