Title           Dr. rer. nat.

monica.matchado(at)tum.de

Monica Steffi Matchado earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in Bioinformatics in India. She then worked as a Junior Research Fellow at Ganga Hospital, studying infection risks in intervertebral disc herniation. Steffi later moved to Germany to pursue a PhD in Bioinformatics, focusing on computational challenges in microbial data analysis—particularly the limitations of 16S rRNA in functional studies. During her PhD, she co-developed Namco, a tool offering machine learning approaches for 16S rRNA data analysis. In 2022, she joined the Stecher Lab as the lead bioinformatician, contributing to the computational side of various microbiome projects. Her current focus is on the computational characterization of bacterial and phage genomes, where she develops customized workflows to uncover patterns in microbial communities.

Funfact: Steffi enjoys exploring the mountain landscapes of the Bavarian Alps and has a strong interest in traveling and discovering new cultures