Dirk Schübeler obtained his PhD from the Technical University in Braunschweig, Germany working in the Helmholtz Center for Infectious Research in the group of Jürgen Bode.

He then did postdoctoral studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA, working with Mark Groudine.

He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna, Austria, the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI), Cambridge, UK and the Excellence Centre of Integrative Biological Signaling Studies (CIBBS), Freiburg, Germany.

Schübeler's research focuses on understanding how chromatin states are generated and how they contribute to the regulation of transcription and replication.

[7] The Schübeler group has identified recruitment mechanism for readers and writers of DNA methylation towards a better understanding of the information flow that generates and reads a chromatinized genome.