Leibniz ScienceCampus for Evolutionary Medicine of the Lung

The Leibniz ScienceCampus Evolutionary Medicine of the Lung (EvoLUNG) integrates evolutionary theory into lung research to achieve a better understanding of chronic lung diseases such as tuberculosis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Three main issues are focused on (1) the spread and evolution of multi-drug resistant pathogens of the lung, (2) the evolutionary origin and possible benefits of disease genes, and (3) the interplay between four key players: disease susceptibility genes, microbiota, pathogens, and abiotic environmental stressors.

The campus partners created an interdisciplinary research scenery linking competences in evolutionary theory, experimental evolution and evolutionary genomics with functional analysis of disease susceptibility genes, host-microbiota interactions, and chronic inflammatory lung disease.

Research Groups (RG)

EvoLUNG unites scientists from three different German research institutions:

Forschungszentrum Borstel – Leibniz-Zentrum für Medizin und Biowissenschaften (FZB) / RG - Molecular and Experimental Mycobacteriology, RG - Early life Origins of Chronic Lung Disease, RG – Cellular Microbiology, RG – Invertebrate Models

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) / RG – Genomic Microbiology, RG – Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics, RG – Molecular Physiology

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (MPI) / RG – Evolutionary Genomics

Team

The team consists of Senior and Junior Scientists as well as PhD-students from different research groups (RG) of the participating institutions.

Senior Scientists are international recognized experts in the fields of infectious and chronic lung diseases (TB and Asthma) as well as in various topics of evolutionary biology as experimental evolution and evolutionary genomics.

Junior scientists are young researcher in an early phase of their scientific carrier based in the different research groups of the Senior Scientists. First international consideration of their scientific results qualified them to supervise PhD students during their experimental stage of their thesis.

Nine PhD-students complement the research team of the Leibniz-ScienceCampus EvoLUNG.