Heidelberg · Launching 1 October 2026
IMAI brings together research, clinical applications, and education in medical AI at Heidelberg University Hospital. Its founding director will hold the Hopp Foundation Professorship for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Heidelberg University.
Mission and mandate
IMAI supports AI research, clinical practice, and teaching across the Heidelberg-Mannheim hospital alliance and the Heidelberg Faculty of Medicine.
Research groups develop new methods and test them with clinical partners. The Innovation & Implementation Center works with clinical teams to take research prototypes through prospective evaluation and monitors their use in clinical practice.
The institute expands clinical AI infrastructure, advises research groups and clinical teams, develops industry collaborations, and supports the creation of start-ups. The team includes specialists in medicine, computer science, physics, biology, engineering, and law.
Working closely with Heidelberg University Hospital’s Center for Digitalization and Information Technology (ZDI), IMAI contributes to the joint digital and data strategy of Heidelberg and Mannheim University Hospitals. This work requires structured data in secure, controlled environments, with safeguards for patient privacy and compliance with legal requirements.
Within the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim, IMAI connects medical expertise and technological innovation to accelerate translation from research into clinical practice.
AI agents are one of IMAI’s central research areas. These systems use large language models to autonomously carry out complex tasks in multiple steps, with potential applications in diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient management. Our research also covers foundation models and AI biomarkers using imaging, pathology, genomics, and clinical records.
Prospective and multicentre studies assess clinical usefulness, safety, reliability, and workflow effects at Heidelberg University Hospital and partner sites.
Clinical teams introduce validated systems into their workflows and evaluate their effect on patients and staff at the university hospitals in Heidelberg and Mannheim. Implementation includes documentation, training, oversight, and monitoring.
AI can support clinicians and help them make informed decisions. Physicians remain responsible for diagnosis and treatment.
Education
IMAI develops clinical AI courses and training for students, researchers, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals.
Students learn to work with medical data, develop AI systems, and bring them into practice. Teaching also covers the ethical, legal, and regulatory questions involved.
Training covers technical methods, clinical evaluation, and implementation, alongside ethics, law, and regulation.
Science
Selected work led by the institute’s founding director spans clinical agents, AI safety, computational pathology, and standards for clinical use.
Nature Medicine · 2026
Zhang L, Wölflein G, Ferber D, …, Kather JN
View paper →Nature · 2026
Ferber D, Hilgers L, Höper C, Kinny-Köster B, Eckardt JN, Egger-Heidrich K, ..., Jäger D, Kather JN
View paper →Nature · 2026
Clusmann J, Freyer O, Ostermann M, Ferber D, Ghaffari Laleh N, Hilgers L, ..., Wiest IC, Kather JN
View paper →
Lancet Digital Health · 2026
Wekenborg MK, Michels EAM, Kurze G, Kropp ML, Wolf F, Harzbecker J, ..., Wiest IC, Kather JN
View paper →
Annals of Oncology · 2025
Aldea M, Salto-Tellez M, Marra A, Umeton R, Stenzinger A, Koopman M, ..., Westphalen CB, Kather JN
View paper →Annals of Oncology · 2025
Wong EYT, Verlingue L, Aldea M, Franzoi MA, Umeton R, Halabi S, ..., Koopman M, Kather JN
View paper →
Nature Cancer · 2025
Ferber D, El Nahhas OSM, Wölflein G, Wiest IC, Clusmann J, Leßmann ME, ..., Truhn D, Kather JN
View paper →
Nature Communications · 2025
Boehm KM, El Nahhas OSM, Marra A, Waters M, Jee J, Braunstein L, ..., Shah SP, Kather JN
View paper →
Nature Protocols · 2024
El Nahhas OSM, van Treeck M, Wölflein G, Unger M, Ligero M, Lenz T, ..., Truhn D, Kather JN
View paper →
Cancer Cell · 2023
Wagner SJ, Reisenbüchler D, West NP, …, Boxberg M, Peng T, Kather JN
View paper →Nature Medicine · 2022
Saldanha OL, Quirke P, West NP, …, Hoffmeister M, Truhn D, Kather JN
View paper →Nature Medicine · 2019
Kather JN, Pearson AT, Halama N, …, Hoffmeister M, Trautwein C, Luedde T
View paper →International network
IMAI is a Heidelberg hub in an international network of medical, scientific, and technical partners.
Joint research connects clinical sites and AI groups across Europe and beyond. These collaborations provide diverse data, independent validation, and the multidisciplinary expertise needed to evaluate medical AI across health systems.
Research groups, clinical departments, and shared infrastructure connect method development with clinical evaluation.
Partner sites contribute independent cohorts, prospective studies, and common standards for clinical AI.
International collaborators bring complementary data, methods, and clinical expertise to joint research.
Institute structure
IMAI consists of independent research labs and the Innovation & Implementation Center.
Each principal investigator leads a lab and sets its research programme. The IMAI office and core structures support new groups and provide access to shared clinical and technical resources.
Junior principal investigators can build independent programmes while remaining affiliated with an established lab.
Research group
Clinical AI, computational pathology, multimodal foundation models, language models, and autonomous agents
Led by Prof. Dr. Jakob Nikolas KatherKather Lab website →
Translation
The IIC works with clinical and research teams to evaluate AI systems, address regulatory requirements, and prepare them for use in clinical workflows. It supports systems from initial assessment through implementation and ongoing quality monitoring.
Led by Dr. Isabella Bremer (née Wiest)About the IIC →
Junior research group
Swarm learning, federated learning, and multimodal AI for distributed medical data
Led by Dr. Oliver Lester Saldanha
Junior research group
Agentic and multimodal AI for precision oncology, clinical trials, and rare cancers
Led by Dr. Julien Vibert · Co-affiliated with Gustave Roussy
Coordinates IMAI's teaching and develops education and training offerings with partners across Heidelberg and Mannheim.
Manages partnerships, projects, events, and institute operations.
Manages on-premises and cloud GPU computing, data storage, and technical infrastructure.
Supports teams with governance, compliance, and regulatory pathways for medical AI.
Institute
Founding Director
On 1 October 2026, Professor Jakob Nikolas Kather will become founding director of IMAI and Hopp Foundation Professor of “Artificial Intelligence in Medicine” at the Faculty of Medicine at Heidelberg University. He joins from TU Dresden, where he has held the Chair of Clinical Artificial Intelligence since 2022. He is board-certified in internal medicine and holds a master’s degree in Medical Physics. Since 2020, he has also led a research group in Medical Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital.
Head of Operations
Silvia Barbosa is a scientist trained in cellular and molecular biology. She completed her doctoral research in experimental and translational head and neck oncology in Heidelberg and now coordinates IMAI operations.
Head of Innovation & Implementation
Isabella Bremer is a physician with additional training in health economics. Her research concerns the development, evaluation, and clinical implementation of large language models.
Press
The Hopp Foundation Professorship and IMAI receive funding of up to eight million euros from the Dietmar Hopp Foundation over the next five years. This funding helps translate research into safe clinical applications that benefit patients.
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