Lässig
research
group
Statistical Physics and Quantitative Biology
University of Cologne
News archive
October 2017
Review article on predictive modeling of human influenza appeared in Trends in Microbiology
August 2017
New paper on the evolution of gene expression appeared in Cell Reports. Using a new statistical inference method, we show that adaptive evolution of expression is pervasive across the Drosophila genus.
March 2017
A perspective article on predicting evolution appeared in Nature Ecology and Evolution. We undertake a synthesis of central concepts fpr evolutionary predictions, based on examples of microbial and viral systems, cancer cell populations, and immune receptor repertoires.
May 2015
New paper on dorsoventral body patterning in insects appeared in eLife. This experimental-theoretical collaboration establishes a self-organized body patterning mechanism in basal insects.
November 2014
New paper on epidemiology and evolution of the Ebola virus. We find a difference in growth rate between viral clades of the 2014 outbreak, and we discuss implications of this result. Our method can be used to perform real-time tracking of an evolving epidemic.
July 2014
The New Science of Evolutionary Forecasting by Carl Zimmer appears in Quanta Magazine. This feature article discusses our work on influenza.
July 2014
New paper on the adaptive evolution of molecular phenotypes is in press at J. Stat. Mech. The key result is a new test for adaptive evolution of quantitative traits that does not require information on the genetic trait loci.
February 2014
New paper on predicting the evolution of human influenza has appeared in Nature. This work suggests a principled method for influenza vaccine selection. It has been discussed in several commentaries and has received extensive press coverage.
Group, conferences we are involved in, etc.
August 2015
Conference Statistical Physics, Biology, Inference and Networks, Summer School, Beg Rohu, France
July 2015
Conference Forecasting Evolution?, organized by Isabel Gordo, Michael Lässig, and Ville Mustonen takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.
July 2015
Conference The Physics Behind Systems Biology, Summer School, Bremen
June 2015
Conference Probability and Biological Evolution, Marseille
December 2014
Fernanda Pinheiro joins the group as a postdoctoral scientist. Welcome!
October 2014
The 5th Boyd-Orr Symposium: From viral genotype to phenotype takes place in Glasgow. Keynote by ML.
July 2014
Several group members join the workshop Evolution of Drug Resistance at KITP Santa Barbara.
June 2014
Symposium of the Münster Graduate School of Evolution. Keynote talk by ML.
June 2014
The summer school Mechanisms, Strategies, and Evolution of Microbial Systems, organized by Berenike
Maier and ML, takes place in Bad Honnef.
April 2014
Christian Kiefer joins the group as a master student. Welcome!
March 2014
APS March Meeting in Denver. Invited talk by ML.
Mind The Gap 4
Conference, Vienna, November 2013
Conference, Vienna, November 2013
From Soft Matter to Bio-Systems 
Symposium, Potsdam, November 2013
Symposium, Potsdam, November 2013
Infectious Disease Dynamics
Meeting, Newton Institute, Cambridge, UK, August 2013
Meeting, Newton Institute, Cambridge, UK, August 2013
DPG Spring Meeting
Conference, Regensburg, March 2013
Conference, Regensburg, March 2013
Systems Biology Approach to Infectious Processes
Conference, Lyon, May 2013
Conference, Lyon, May 2013
Mathematical Tools for Evolutionary Systems Biology
Workshop, Banff International Research Station, May 2013
Workshop, Banff International Research Station, May 2013
Quantitative Laws of Genome Evolution
Workshop, Como (Italy), June/July 2013
Workshop, Como (Italy), June/July 2013
Quantitative Population Genetics and Evolution
Summer School, Cargese, July 2013
Summer School, Cargese, July 2013
Bayesian Methods in Science
Workshop, Pondicherry (India), January 2013
Workshop, Pondicherry (India), January 2013
Physical Virology
Workshop, Trieste, September 2012
Workshop, Trieste, September 2012
Evolutionary Dynamics and Information Hierarchies in Biological Systems
Workshop, Aspen, August/September 2012
Workshop, Aspen, August/September 2012
The Emerging Dynamic View of Proteins: Protein Plasticity in Allostery, Evolution, and Self-assembly
Conference, Dresden, July 2012
Conference, Dresden, July 2012
Epidemiology and Viral Evolution
Symposium, Manchester, June 2012
Symposium, Manchester, June 2012
Jacques Monod Conference "Theoretical and Empirical Advances in Evolutionary Genomics"
Roscoff, France, March 2012
Roscoff, France, March 2012
Cologne Spring Meeting
Cologne University, February 2012
Cologne University, February 2012
Selection in Population Genetics
Conference, Paris, December 2011
Conference, Paris, December 2011
Cross-disciplinary Genomics
Conference, Paris, October 2011
Conference, Paris, October 2011
Evolutionary Genomics: New Data, New Challenges
Workshop, Pelham, Germany, September 2011
Workshop, Pelham, Germany, September 2011
Setting Time Aright
Conference, Bergen - Copenhagen, August 2011
Conference, Bergen - Copenhagen, August 2011
Foundations and Applications of Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
Workshop, Nordita, September 2011
Workshop, Nordita, September 2011
From Computational Biophysics to Systems Biology 2011 (CBSB11)
Workshop, Jülich, July 2011
Workshop, Jülich, July 2011
Europhysics Conference on Statistical Physics 2011 (SigmaPhi2011)
Cyprus, July 2011
Cyprus, July 2011
Physics and Biological Systems
Conference, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, June 2011
Conference, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, June 2011
Bacterial and Viral Evolution
Workshop, Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, January - March 2011
Workshop, Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, January - March 2011
Random Trees, Polymers and Networks in Biology
Workshop, Nordita, Stockholm, December 2010
Workshop, Nordita, Stockholm, December 2010
Physics and Evolution
Summer School, University of California, San Diego, August 2010
Summer School, University of California, San Diego, August 2010
Quantitative Biology: From Complex Networks to Simple Models
Conference, Montauk, September 2010
Conference, Montauk, September 2010
Molecular Basis of Evolutionary Innovations
Conference, Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium, July 2010
Conference, Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium, July 2010
Evolution of Biological Networks
1st EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Workshop, Barcelona, July 2010
1st EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Workshop, Barcelona, July 2010
StatphysHK: Complexity, Computation, and Information
Conference, Hong Kong, July 2010
Conference, Hong Kong, July 2010
Understanding Scientific Progress: Evolutionary-Developmental Biology
Workshop, Ben-Gurion University, Israel, June 2010
Workshop, Ben-Gurion University, Israel, June 2010
Inference in Stochastic Models of Sequence Evolution
Workshop, Mathematical Biosciences Institute, Columbus OH, February 2010
Workshop, Mathematical Biosciences Institute, Columbus OH, February 2010
AAAS 2010 Annual Meeting
San Diego, February 2010
San Diego, February 2010
Fluctuations, Information Flow, and Experimental Measurements
Workshop, Paris, January 2010
Workshop, Paris, January 2010
Populations, Evolution, and Physics
Winter School, Aspen Center for Physics, 2010
Winter School, Aspen Center for Physics, 2010
DNA, RNA and Synthetic Evolution
Workshop, Munich, December 2009
Workshop, Munich, December 2009
Discussion Meeting on Molecular Evolution
Coorg, India, November 2009
Coorg, India, November 2009
150 Years After Darwin: From Molecular Evolution To Language
Conference, Palma de Mallorca, November 2009
Conference, Palma de Mallorca, November 2009
Advances in Statistical Physics, Biophysics and Complexity
Symposium, Copenhagen, October 2009
Symposium, Copenhagen, October 2009
Future of Computational Biology
Conference, Potsdam, September 2009
Conference, Potsdam, September 2009
Introductory Lectures on Aspects of Complexity
Manchester, July 2009
Manchester, July 2009
Physics of Biological Function
Heraeus Foundation Summer School, Bad Honnef, June 2009
Heraeus Foundation Summer School, Bad Honnef, June 2009
From Biological Networks to Cellular Function: Evolution, Dynamics and Spatial Organization
School and Conference, ICTP Trieste, June 2009
School and Conference, ICTP Trieste, June 2009
Benelux Bioinformatics Conference (BBC 2008)
Conference, Maastricht, December 2008
Conference, Maastricht, December 2008
XX International Congress of Genetics
Berlin, July 2008
Berlin, July 2008
Quantitative Systems Biology (QSB 2008)
Conference, Shanghai, July 2008
Conference, Shanghai, July 2008
Evolution Across Scales
Conference, Potsdam, May 2008
Conference, Potsdam, May 2008
Bioinformatics 2008
Conference, Warsaw, April 2008
Conference, Warsaw, April 2008