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