Predictability in Evolution

Collaborative Research Center 1310

Central facilities

Technology platform for evolution experiments

Tobias Bollenbach, U Cologne | web | email

Berenike Maier, U Cologne | web | email

Laboratory evolution experiments play a central role in characterizing the repeatability and predictability of evolution. In this central platform, we jointly develop and maintain an integrated robotic system optimized for massively parallel evolution experiments. With state-of-the-art techniques, we evolve thousands of microbial cultures in parallel and perform high-throughput fitness measurements, which are essential for evolutionary predictions.

Evolutionary bioinformatics unit

Andreas Beyer, U Cologne | web | email

Michael Lässig, U Cologne | web | email

The projects of the Center generate large amounts of evolutionary data, which include genomic sequences and phenotypic assays. The unit provides specialized bioinformatic and bio-statistical data analysis targeted towards evolutionary predictions. This includes assistance in the design of complex evolution experiments, analysis of high-throughput molecular data, time-resolved sequence analysis and tree reconstruction.