Departmental Research Groups

Algal Development and Evolution - Susana Coelho

Borg Lab - Development in Red Algae

Group leader: 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: 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: Dr. Catia Igreja

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. more

Entomo-Nematology

Group Leader: Dr. 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: Dr. 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: PD Dr. Adrian Streit

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. more

Protein Evolution - Andrei Lupas

Conservation of Protein Structure and Function

Group leader: Birte Hernandez Alvarez

We study structure-function relationships in proteins from an evolutionary perspective. [more]

Molecular Recognition and Catalysis

Group leader: Marcus Hartmann

Our mission is to understand and manipulate macromolecular machines and systems. [more]

Protein Bioinformatics

Group leader: Vikram Alva

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]

Protein Folding, Unfolding and Degradation

Group leader: Jörg Martin

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

Transmembrane Signal Transduction

Group leader: Murray Coles

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

Structural Biology of Selfish RNA

Group Leader: Oliver Weichenrieder

‘Selfish’ RNA likely is at the origin of all life on earth and it persists today in the form of retrotransposons and RNA-based viruses. We study human LINE-1 and Alu RNAs and how these ‘molecular parasites’ copy their sequences into genomic DNA. We determine and interpret molecular structures combined with insight from biochemical approaches and cell-based assays. [more]

Molecular Biology - Detlef Weigel

Ecological Genetics

Abilities to defend against different sets of pathogens. [more]

Pathocom

Understanding and predicting PATHOgen COMmunities [more]

Evolution & Adaptation

In our phenotype-driven work, we are interested in individual genes and epigenetic modifications that contribute to adaptation. [more]

Microbes & Immunity

We seek to understand how pathogen pressures shape plant genomes in natural plant -pathosystems. [more]

Computational Biology Group

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