Pioneer of Microbiome Research, Peer Bork, Dies at 62

The Legacy of a Scientific Pioneer

My husband Peer Bork, who has died unexpectedly aged 62, was a bioinformatician with a remarkable ability to identify new directions in science and carry out world-class research to push them forward.

Revolutionizing Microbiome Research

During his career, he progressed from the statistical analysis of the sequences of individual protein molecules, via the analysis of the human genome, to the bioinformatics analysis of whole microbial communities.

Peer pioneered the computational analysis of the human microbiome, introducing the concept of gut enterotypes – in work that was highlighted in many newspaper articles as well as on the radio and TV. He went on to study microbial ecosystems worldwide and, at the time of his death, was involved in expanding a consortium that he had initiated to systematically document coastal ecosystems in Europe. All these studies required the creation of bioinformatics tools – software and curated datasets – which are now widely used by the scientific community in academia and industry.

A Life in Science

Peer was born in the former East Berlin, where his father, Joachim, worked in economic statistics, and his mother, Regina, had an administrative job in the construction industry. Owing to his mathematical abilities, he won a place at a high school specialising in mathematics and science, the Heinrich-Hertz-Oberschule.

After military service on the border between East and West Germany, he studied biochemistry at the University of Leipzig. He followed this with a PhD in bioinformatics under the supervision of Jens Reich at the Central Institute for Molecular Biology of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Berlin.

International Scientific Career

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Peer joined the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg in 1991 as a visiting scientist. He and I met there and married in Canterbury, Kent, in 1994. We had two sons, Udo and Robin, and family life involved many trips between Germany and Britain.

EMBL became Peer's scientific home and he rose up the ranks to become interim director general in 2025. He was dedicated to furthering EMBL – an intergovernmental research organisation with six sites, including the European Bioinformatics Institute near Cambridge. He was an outstanding mentor.

Awards and Recognition

He made science both challenging and fun. Among his awards, which included honorary doctorates and the 2009 Royal Society and Académie des Sciences Microsoft award, he was particularly proud of the Nature award for mentoring in science he received in 2008.

Final Scientific Journey

He died in Taiwan, where he was due to speak at an international conference on the microbiome. He loved to travel and make friends all over the world.

Peer is survived by me, his sons, by a granddaughter and his mother.