Predictability in Evolution

Collaborative Research Center 1310

Our mission

Can we predict pathways and outcomes of future evolutionary processes? We work on this question in fast-evolving systems: microbial populations in the laboratory and in clinical environments, viruses and immune repertoires, and cancer cell populations.

We build high-throughput experiments and models to predict the evolution of drug resistance and immune escape, and of the immune responses in their hosts.

We exploit predictions for interventions: antibiotic treatments, vaccines for influenza and coronavirus, and therapies for HIV and cancer that preempt or curb escape evolution.

The Collaborative Research Center is funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and was established in January 2018.