Tobias Doerks, former predoctoral fellow, passed away on 16 February 2017 aged 45.

We are united in deep mourning for our former colleague Tobias Doerks who died suddenly on 16February 2017 at the age of 45.

Tobias joined EMBL as a PhD student in Heidelberg in 1998. After completing his doctorate, he joined EMBL spin-off, Anadys, before returning to EMBL a few years later to work as a research associate in Peer Bork’s group, where he stayed until 2014.

Tobias was an expert in protein domain identification and homology detection in sequence databases. Through countless collaborations, he used this expertise to help numerous experimentalists at EMBL to analyse their sequences. As a result of his bioinformatics service abilities, he became a co-founder of biobyte solutions, an EMBL spin-off bioinformatics company.

Beyond protein sequence analysis, Tobias enriched our lives in many ways. Our memories of him include his kind personality, passion and expertise in mushroom hunting, and his wonderful, wry sense of humour.

Tobias leaves behind his wife Anja and daughter Leonie.

by Peer Bork and Ivica Letunic