Symbiont Evolution group now open for business

I have officially joined the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
and Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg as Junior Research Group Leader. The Symbiont Evolution group will be funded by DFG's Emmy Noether Programme (see my previous post).

Our research will explore symbiont host shifts using Spiroplasma/Drosophila and Wolbachia/solitary bees as model symbiont/host systems. Our work will include experimental evolution as well as sampling of natural symbiont populations, and of course lots of genomics.

If any of that sounds exciting, I'd love to hear from you! PhD positions will be advertised soon, but there is also lots of room to explore related avenues of research. There are several funding options for independent projects – just get in touch and we can explore possibilities. 

iDiv is a wonderful and unique place of work with excellent facilities and infrastructure. Learn more about it here.