Proteins provide the chemical basis for all processes of life. We investigate their origin and the evolution of their folds and mechanisms of action by means of bioinformatics, biochemistry and sturctural biology.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Protein Evolution
Using a variety of biochemistry, biophysics and microbiology techniques, we focus on prokaryotic model systems to better understand these intricate processes.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Protein Evolution
We are broadly interested in understanding the events that led to the emergence of these first folds and their diversification into the many functional protein families we recognize today.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Protein Evolution
We are interested in the molecular details that control this integration process and combine mechanistic analyses based on molecular structures with cell-based retrotransposition assays.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department Protein Evolution
We focus on the development and application of bioinformatics tools to study the function of protein-based systems from an evolutionary perspective. This approach allows us to describe present-day systems in the context of the evolutionary events that shaped them, to define their unique and conserved features, and to propose testable hypotheses.
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We employ integrative approaches include genetic, genomic, chemical, and biochemical analyses, cell biology, quantitative imaging and computational modelling to investigate the interactions between the nematode-trapping fungus (A. oligospora) and the oyster mushroom (P. ostreatus) with the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
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The Department of Microbiome Science is broadly interested in the ecology and evolution of the human gut microbiota. We perform population-level research to probe links between human genotype and the gut microbiota, and we focus mechanistically on ways in which specific gut microbes have adapted to the human body.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Microbiome Science
While the taxonomic structure of gut microbiome in the world human populations has been outlined, its subspecies-level genomic richness in the context of co-evolution with the host, particularly the variability of its extrachromosomal content, is still to be elucidated.
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Ralf Sommer Integrative Evolutionary Biology
Director
We link development, ecology, and population genetics in a highly integrative approach to study how novel and complex traits evolve as a result of historical processes.
Departmental Group Leader, Department of Integrative Evolutionary Biology
How do processes like duplication, genomic rearrangements, and formation of novel genes shape genomes? Do these processes generate heritable differences in the phenotypes that we care about? To extend our understanding of these two questions, we combine large-scale sequencing data with statistical analysis to find the genetic basis of various traits in the nematode P. pacificus.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Integrative Evolutionary Biology
We use a biochemical approach to study phenotypically plastic traits in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus and describe the regulatory mechanisms of enzyme expression, activity and specificity that lead to multimorphic outcomes.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Integrative Evolutionary Biology
We study various aspects of the biology of Strongyloides spp. nematodes. This genus consists of more than 50 species, which are small-intestinal parasites of vertebrates. Among them is the human pathogen S. stercoralis. According to recent WHO estimates more than 600 million people are infected with this parasite world wide.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Integrative Evolutionary Biology
We study nematode-insect associations with a major mission to describe nematode diversity as well as the specificity of their association with beetles. We collect specimens world-wide and focus within-species diversity studies on La Réunion island, where we have a small field station.
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Brown algae have been evolving independently of animals and land plants for more than a billion years. We exploit these organisms to understand the origin, evolution and regulation of sexual systems diversity and multicellular development across eukaryotes.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Algal Development and Evolution
Aga Lipinska is leading the effort to characterise the role of sex chromosomes in postzygotic isolation, to identify the causative genomic regions and to carry out evolutionary analyses of the genes underlying hybrid incompatibility in brown algal species.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Algal Development and Evolution
We are now applying our expertise in red algae, where the relevance and function of molecular processes underlying development and reproduction is poorly understood.
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There is tremendous phenotypic diversity between and within species. Much of this is thought to reflect adaptation to the environment. Drawing on tools from high-throughput genomics to forward genetics, we are investigating the mechanisms responsible for adaptive variation.
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Departmental Group Leader, Department of Molecular Biology
We study the spatial and temporal dynamics of virulence and resistance in a plant-oomycete pathosystem to understand how genetic heterogeneity of disease resistance evolves.
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The African Plant Genomics group uses a genome-centred approach to study the diversity of under-researched subsistence crops in southern Africa together with scientists based on the African continent. The insights from our research will inform the conservation and improvement of these crops. We study horned melon’s (Cucumis metuliferus) genomic and phenotypic diversity and the basis of its resistance to root-knot nematode disease. We are also examining whether an understanding of its agronomically valuable traits can be exploited for other crops.more
Working at the interface of microbial evolution, pathogen genomics and plant microbe interactions, the overarching goal of our work is to understand how plant pathogens emerge and evolve.
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We are interested in the molecular currencies driving the cooperation of species, and the genomic and metabolic consequences of coevolution between a host and its symbiont.
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Our research focuses on the evolution and design principles of adaptive immune systems in vertebrates. We use a comparative approach, studying various species, from basal vertebrates to humans.
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We use a multidisciplinary approach, including comparative genomics, evolutionary biology, genetics, as well as biophysics and structural biology to dissect the mechanisms that facilitate chromosome-scale, structural genomic variation, and the impact of these variants on molecular plant-pathogen coevolution.
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Development of a pheno-genomic workflow to unveil the biology of environmental protists using 3D imaging combined with omics technologies, one cell at a time.more
We study the genetic basis of phenotypic variation between individuals, and the role that those genetic effects play in the robustness and evolvability of natural populations of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.more
Meiosis is the process by which the chromosomes from each parent are properly segregated into gametes (e.g. eggs and sperm). Our group examines the mechanisms that control this critical process in the development of new life.
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