Departmental Research Groups

Algal Development and Evolution - Susana Coelho

Borg Lab - Development in Red Algae
Group leader: Dr. Michael Borg

How complex multicellular organisms develop from a single cell into a fully-fledged living being is a fundamental and fascinating question in biology. more
Lipinska Lab - Reproductive Isolation and Speciation in Brown Algae
Group leader: Dr. Agnieszka Lipinska

Studies of reproductive isolation hold the key to our understanding of how new species are formed. more

Integrative Evolutionary Biology- Ralf J. Sommer

Regulation and Post-Translational Modification of Gene Expression in Nematodes
Group Leader: Catia Igreja

Environmental changes shape developmental and behavioral traits in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus. The molecular mechanisms associated with such phenotypic plasticity are under scrutiny at the Sommerlab. I have spent the last years studying how eukaryotic cells control messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels. more
Entomo-Nematology
Group Leader: Matthias Herrmann

Many scientists work in the field of entomology, few in the field of nematology and almost none in the area between. And while almost one million species of insects have been named so far, merely 20,000 nematode species have been formally described.  more
Evolutionary Genomics and Bioinformatics
Group Leader: Christian Rödelsperger

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. more
Parasitic Nematodes
Group Leader: Adrian Streit

The nematode genus Strongyloides consists of parasites that live as parthenogenetic females in the small intestines of their vertebrate hosts. In addition to producing parasitic offspring, Strongyloides spp. can also form a facultative free-living generation with males and females. more

Protein Evolution - Andrei Lupas

Group leader: Dr. Birte Hernandez Alvarez

We study structure-function relationships in proteins from an evolutionary perspective. [more]
Group leader: Dr. Marcus Hartmann

Our mission is to understand and manipulate macromolecular machines and systems.  [more]
Group leader: Vikram Alva, PhD

Many proteins share detectable similarities in sequence and structure. Sequence-based comparison of modern proteins shows that they fall into only about ten thousand domain families [more]
Group leader: Dr. Jörg Martin

Using a variety of biochemistry, biophysics and microbiology techniques, we focus on prokaryotic model systems to better understand these intricate processes. [more]
Dr. Marcus Hartmann

The primary goal of structural biology is a mechanistic understanding of biological macromolecules and of biological processes so that they can be described in the language of physics and chemistry. [more]
Group leader: Dr. Murray Coles

Our group concentrates on protein structure determination, with a special focus on proteins involved in transmembrane signaling. [more]

Molecular Biology - Detlef Weigel

In our phenotype-driven work, we are interested in individual genes and epigenetic modifications that contribute to adaptation.  [more]
We seek to understand how pathogen pressures shape plant genomes in natural plant -pathosystems.  [more]
Group leader: Dr. Hajk-Georg Drost

The department hosts the group of Hajk-Georg Drost, which develops cutting-edge software solutions to deal with the ever-increasing amount of genomic information. [more]

Microbiome Science - Ruth Ley

Microbiome Engineering
Group leader: James Marsh, PhD

The community of microorganisms within the human gastrointestinal tract is one of the most diverse ecosystems known, yet we currently have limited tools to unravel its intrinsic complexity. Next-generation sequencing approaches have been invaluable for the characterisation of gut microbial distribution, abundance, and evolution. more
Mobile genetic elements in the gut microbiome of human populations
Group leader: Dr. Alexander Tyakht

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. more
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