PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Jakob Nikolas Kather

Jakob Nikolas Kather is a physician and computer scientist who builds deep learning tools for cancer care, from biomarkers read off routine tissue slides to autonomous clinical AI agents. Trained in medicine and medical physics at Heidelberg University's Mannheim faculty, he showed in a 2019 Nature Medicine paper that deep residual learning can predict microsatellite instability directly from standard histology. After receiving the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize in 2021, he took the Chair of Clinical Artificial Intelligence at TU Dresden in June 2022. His group brought swarm learning to cancer pathology in 2022 and presented a GPT-4-based oncology agent in 2025, when his team also won the Felix Burda Award. Since October 2026, he is Hopp Foundation Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Heidelberg University and founding director of the Institute for Medical AI at Heidelberg University Hospital.

Now at
Department of Medical Oncology, Technische Universität Dresden and Heidelberg University
Born
1989
Badges

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2009–2018

    Medicine and medical physics in Mannheim

    A native of Freiburg, he studies medicine and earns a Master's degree in Medical Physics at the Faculty of Medicine Mannheim of Heidelberg University between 2009 and 2016, completing a doctorate on tumor angiogenesis in 2016. He then works as a resident physician in the Department of Medical Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital until 2018.

  2. 2019

    Predicting MSI from histology

    In 2019, he is first author of a Nature Medicine paper showing that deep residual learning can predict microsatellite instability, a marker of strong response to immunotherapy, directly from routine histology in gastrointestinal cancer.

  3. 2020–2021

    Computational oncology group and Aachen

    Since 2020, he leads the Computational Oncology research group in the Department of Medical Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital, after research stays at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa and the University of Chicago Medicine. In 2021, he accepts a tenure-track professorship in Gastrointestinal Immunology at RWTH Aachen University.

  4. 2021

    The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize

    The German Research Foundation (DFG) gives him the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize in 2021 for his work on computer-based methods in clinical imaging, which helps improve diagnosis and treatment in oncology, for example in colorectal cancer prevention.

  5. 2022

    Swarm learning for pathology

    In 2022, he coauthors a Nature Medicine study on swarm learning, in which partners jointly train AI models without transferring patient data. Using histopathology images from over 5,000 patients, the swarm-trained models predict BRAF mutational status and microsatellite instability in colorectal cancer.

  6. June 2022

    Clinical AI chair in Dresden

    In June 2022, he takes up the new Else Kröner Professorship for Clinical Artificial Intelligence at the Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health at TU Dresden. He also cares for patients in Medical Clinic I of Dresden University Hospital.

  7. 2025

    Felix Burda Award and an oncology agent

    His research team at TU Dresden wins the 2025 Felix Burda Award for a deep learning model that reads colorectal cancer tissue samples and builds individual risk profiles. In 2025, his group also publishes in Nature Cancer an autonomous AI agent built on GPT-4 that reaches correct clinical conclusions in 91.0% of 20 realistic oncology cases.

  8. Since October 2026

    Hopp Foundation Professor in Heidelberg

    Since October 2026, he holds the Hopp Foundation Professorship for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Heidelberg University's Faculty of Medicine and is founding director of the Institute for Medical AI (IMAI) at Heidelberg University Hospital. The Dietmar Hopp Stiftung funds the professorship and the institute with up to eight million euros over five years, and he remains affiliated with TU Dresden.

Career

  1. Since 2026Heidelberg University HospitalResident physician, Founding director
  2. Since 2026Heidelberg UniversityHopp Foundation Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  3. Since 2022Technische Universität DresdenProfessor for Clinical Artificial Intelligence
  4. Since 2020Department of Medical OncologyGroup leader
  5. From 2022Dresden University Hospital
  6. From 2021RWTH Aachen UniversityTenure-track Professor of Gastrointestinal Immunology

Education

  1. 2016Heidelberg UniversityMedicine and Medical Physics
  2. 2016Heidelberg UniversityDoctorate

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Heidelberg University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Heidelberg University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Heidelberg University. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Technische Universität Dresden. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Professor Jakob Nikolas Kather Appointed Hopp Foundation Professor of “Artificial Intelligence in Medicine” and Founding Director of the New Institute for Medical AI (IMAI) in Heidelberg klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Jakob Nikolas Kather — Academic profile and media kit kather.ai. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Deep learning can predict microsatellite instability directly from histology in gastrointestinal cancer | Nature Medicine nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis 2021 | DFG dfg.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Swarm learning for decentralized artificial intelligence in cancer histopathology | Nature Medicine nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. We welcome Jakob N. Kather as Professor for Clinical Artificial Intelligence digitalhealth.tu-dresden.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Jakob N. Kather's Research Team wins 2025 Felix Burda Award - SECAI secai.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Development and validation of an autonomous artificial intelligence agent for clinical decision-making in oncology | Nature Cancer nature.com. Checked 21 October 2026.