Research Topics
Find out more about the cutting-edge research topics investigated across our different research groups to help you navigate the list below.
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Applicants are asked to select specific groups in their online application form as indication of interest. Please note that the list below is preliminary and may change prior to the interviews. All eligible applications will be available to all recruiting Group Leaders to review and select candidates for interviews.
Read more about the application process here.
The list below shows Group Leaders with open positions in the 2025 Summer Recruitment. The list is preliminary and may be subject to change.
Find out more about the cutting-edge research topics investigated across our different research groups to help you navigate the list below.
No recruiting GTLs
No recruiting GTLs
Florian Wollweber (incoming Group Leader)
In-cell structural systems biology of infection
The Kosinski group investigates viruses and parasites using structural and systems biology approaches.
Understanding cross-scale principles of cellular organisation
The Banterle group studies how the ultrastructure of macromolecular complexes can influence cell physiology, using centrioles as a model paradigm. To bridge spatial scales, we use a combination of high-speed atomic force and super-resolution microscopy, together with cellular assays.
Evolutionary cell biology of the nucleus
The Dey group studies the evolutionary origins of nuclear organisation and architecture, with a particular interest in nuclear remodelling through the cell cycle.
Self-organisation in meiosis
The Koehler group studies how chromatin is organised during meiosis to allow for the production of haploid gametes from diploid precursor cells.
Machine learning for bioimage analysis
The Kreshuk group develops machine learning-based methods and tools for automatic segmentation, classification and analysis of biological images.
Evolution of the nervous system in bilateria
By studying and comparing simple marine animals and their constituent cells, the Arendt group looks to understand the origin and evolution of the nervous system and of the entire animal body.
Timing in embryonic development
The Aulehla group studies the role of timing during development, in particular how signalling dynamics and oscillations control spatiotemporal pattern formation as an embryo develops.
Theory of biological homeostasis and plasticity
The Graf group uses tools from theoretical biophysics to investigate how living systems can robustly function despite being highly complex, intrinsically noisy, and subject to changing environmental conditions.
Evolution of microbial life cycles
Both eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbes display astonishing forms of primitive development, affecting how cells organise themselves into simple collectives that propagate in both space and time. The van Gestel group studies how microbial development evolves in the context of predation, a major ecological driver of evolutionary innovation, using a combination of microfluidics, functional genomics and high-content expression libraries.
Genome regulation and chromatin topology during embryonic development
The Furlong group dissects fundamental principles of genome regulation and how that drives cell fate decisions during development, focusing on organisational and functional properties of the genome.
Quantitative Biology and Statistics
The Huber group develops statistical methods for modern biotechnologies, applies them to biological discovery, and translates them into reusable tools.
Multi-omics-based modelling of microbial ecosystems
The Zimmermann-Kogadeeva group combines computational modelling and multi-omics data integration to investigate how microbes adapt to their surroundings, and how metabolic adaptations of individual bacteria shape the functional outcome of microbial communities and their interactions with the environment.
Organisational principles and 3D architecture of archaeal chromatin
The Dodonova group aims to understand the mechanisms and evolutionary principles of genome packaging and chromatin 3D organisation by studying archaea using a combination of biochemistry, biophysics, and high-resolution structural biology in near-native contexts.
Environmental response at the single-cell level
The Dorrity group investigates how variability propagates from the level of molecules to developing cells and tissues, and ultimately to organismal phenotype.
Assembly mechanisms and function of protein-RNA complexes at the single-molecule level
The Duss group uses single-molecule methods in combination with integrative structural biological and biochemical approaches to understand how protein-RNA complexes are assembled and how macromolecular machines cooperate with each other, providing new opportunities to fight diseases and to create new functional molecular assemblies.
In-cell structural analysis of phase separation and molecular crowding
Our group brings together two disciplines in structural and cell biology, namely the emerging field of biomolecular condensates and state-of-the-art cellular cryo-electron tomography, to advance our understanding on the functional organisation of the cytoplasm.
High-throughput cryo-EM
The Mattei team develops methods and software supporting high-throughput and fully automated pipelines to tackle the current challenges in cryo-EM sample preparation and screening.
Stability proteomics for assessing the state of the proteome
The Savitski team uses and develops stability proteomics for understanding the phenomenon of aggregation and disaggregation, cell phenotyping, and detection of protein interactions with drugs, metabolites, DNA and RNA.
Metabolic microbiome–host interactions
The Zimmermann group combines high-throughput mass spectrometry, bacterial genetics and computational models to investigate how members of microbial communities alter their chemical environment and how this shapes metabolic interactions within the microbiome and between the microbiome and its host.
Visual circuits in the thalamus
The Rompani group studies the function of visual circuits in the thalamus, using a combination of functional imaging, genetics, virology, and behavioral assays in mice.
No recruiting GTLs