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Profile
Areas of responsibility
I have been a research officer at the LIB since the beginning of April 2021. My areas of responsibility include the internal exchange within the LIB between the researchers at the various locations in Bonn and between Bonn and Hamburg, organisation, support for projects, input for the Director General and the Directorate, committee work & reporting, support for the Graduate School, establishment and support of our mentoring programme, etc. and the representation of the LIB in various (Leibniz) research networks.
I also support the OSIRIS consortium (Open Collection, Information and Research Infrastructure: Collecting for our Future) as coordinator and am involved in its content
In addition, I am actively involved in various projects in the LIB (1KITE, Evolution of rice fishes, Molecular methods, Evolution of Dexiarchia, Type genomics in museum collections etc.).
Research interests
Project and science management and project coordination and organisation in the field of biodiversity research, science communication, science-policy interactions, molecular evolution, phylogenomics, hexapods, speciation, hybridisation, systematics & taxonomy, method development
Scientific focus
My scientific focus is on the phylogenomics and transcriptomics of various insect groups ("basal hexapods", Neuropterida, Mecoptera, Antliophora, Diptera). I am particularly interested in the establishment of new methods and critical evaluation of data sets.
After my diploma thesis (karyology in blues) I was a PhD student in the SPP Deep Metazoan Phylogeny, zmb (Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, supervision: Prof. Dr. B. Misof) in the field of molecular phylogenomics of "basal" hexapods and myriapods from 2005 - 2012. I am co-founder and co-coordinator of the international 1KITE project focussing on insect phylogenomics and method development. From 2013 - 2016 my research focussed on the phylogenomics of Diptera & Antliophora (flies, fleas, scorpionflies) during my stay at the Austr. Nat. Insect Coll ANIC (CSIRO, Canberra) - besides various 1KITE projects. Back in Germany from 2016 - 2021 I was Scientific Coordinator of the DFG Research Unit FOR2281 (Sociality and the reversal of the fecundity-longevity trade-off) in the AG J. Korb (University of Freiburg).
Memberships
German Zoological Society (DZG)
Society for Biological Systematics (GfBS)
OSIRIS Consortium
On the web & social media
Projects
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1KITE
Management: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Bernhard Misof
Publications
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2025/05
Type genomics: a framework for integrating genomic data into biodiversity and taxonomic research
Systematic Biology, 6, 74
2025/03
Unraveling myriapod evolution: sealion, a novel quartet-based approach for evaluating phylogenetic uncertainty
NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, 1, 7
2025/02
Molecular evolution of dietary shifts in ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae): from fungivory to carnivory and herbivory
BMC Biology, 1, 23
2024/03
Leibniz Research Network Biodiversity. (2024). 10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science 2024 (Version 1). Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
2024/01
Perianth evolution and implications for generic delimitation in the eucalypts (Myrtaceae), including the description of the new genus, Blakella
Journal of systematics and evolution/Journal of Systematics and Evolution
2023/08
Potential contribution of ancient introgression to the evolution of a derived reproductive strategy in ricefishes
Genome biology and evolution, 8, 15
2022/07
Pitfalls of the site-concordance factor (sCF) as measure of phylogenetic branch support
NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, 3, 4
2022/07
Contribution of hybridization to the evolution of a derived reproductive strategy in ricefishes
bioRxiv
2022/01
Phylogenetic Revision and Patterns of Host Specificity in the Fungal Subphylum Entomophthoromycotina
Microorganisms, 2, 10
2021/12
Transcriptomics provides a robust framework for the relationships of the major clades of cladobranch sea slugs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia), but fails to resolve the …
BMC ecology and evolution, 21
2021/12
Monophyletic blowflies revealed by phylogenomics
BMC Biology, 1, 19
2021/10
Phylogenomic analyses clarify the pattern of evolution of Adephaga (Coleoptera) and highlight phylogenetic artefacts due to model misspecification and excessive data trimming
Systematic entomology, 4, 46
2021/09
Development and evaluation of a custom bait design based on 469 single-copy protein-coding genes for exon capture of isopods (Philosciidae: Haloniscus)
PloS one, 9, 16
2021/07
Reanalysis of the apoid wasp phylogeny with additional taxa and sequence data confirms the placement of Ammoplanidae as sister to bees
Systematic entomology, 3, 46
2021/06
Transcriptomic signatures of ageing vary in solitary and social forms of an orchid bee
Genome biology and evolution, 6, 13
2021/05
Disentangling the aging gene expression network of termite queens
BMC genomics, 1, 22
2021/04
Oxidative stress and senescence in social insects: a significant but inconsistent link?
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 1823, 376
2021/04
Comparative transcriptomic analysis of the mechanisms underpinning ageing and fecundity in social insects
Philosophical transactions - Royal Society. Biological sciences, 1823, 376
2020/12
Four myriapod relatives – but who are sisters? No end to debates on relationships among the four major myriapod subgroups
BMC Evolutionary Biology, 1, 20
2020/11
Are fleas highly modified Mecoptera? Phylogenomic resolution of Antliophora (Insecta: Holometabola)
2020/10
Correction to: An integrative phylogenomic approach to elucidate the evolutionary history and divergence times of Neuropterida (Insecta: Holometabola)
BMC evolutionary biology, 1, 20
2020/02
No evidence for single-copy immune-gene specific signals of selection in termites
Frontiers in ecology and evolution, 8
2019/10
Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 45, 116
2019/09
No evidence for immune-gene specific signals of selection in termites
bioRxiv
2019/08
Identifying genetic markers for a range of phylogenetic utility–From species to family level
PloS one, 8, 14
2019/03
No signal of deleterious mutation accumulation in conserved gene sequences of extant asexual hexapods
Scientific reports, 1, 9
2019/02
Long live the queen, the king and the commoner? Transcript expression differences between old and young in the termite Cryptotermes secundus
PloS one, 2, 14
2019/01
Termite taxonomy, challenges and prospects: West Africa, a case example
Insects, 1, 10
2019/00
Data from: Longevity and transposon defense, the case of termite reproductives
2018/11
Phylogenomic analysis of Paraneoptera using transcriptome sequencing
2018/08
Stress and early experience underlie dominance status and division of labour in a clonal insect
Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 1885, 285
2018/06
Hypothesis on monochromatic vision in scorpionflies questioned by new transcriptomic data
Scientific reports, 1, 8
2018/05
Longevity and transposon defense, the case of termite reproductives
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 21, 115
2018/03
Brochosomins and other novel proteins from brochosomes of leafhoppers (Insecta, Hemiptera, Cicadellidae)
Insect biochemistry and molecular biology, 94
2017/11
Phylogenomics of cockroaches (Blattodea)
2017/11
Transcriptomics to estimate the systematic relationships of Odonata
2017/00
The phylogeny of Hexapoda (Arthropoda) and the evolution of megadiversity
Proc. Arthropod. Embryol. Soc. Jpn, 51
2016/12
Transcriptomic data from panarthropods shed new light on the evolution of insulator binding proteins in insects: Insect insulator proteins
BMC genomics, 17
2016/12
Phylogenetic Origin and Diversification of RNAi Pathway Genes in Insects
Genome biology and evolution, 12, 8
2016/09
Inferring the evolutionary history of wasps, ants, and bees from transcriptomic data (Insecta: Hymenoptera)
2016/09
Inferring the relationships of early brachyceran lineages with phylogenomic and comprehensive morphological data
2016/09
Phylogenetic relationships of apoid wasps and bees inferred from analyzing target DNA enrichment data
2016/09
Using transcriptome based phylogenomics to address previously intractable acalyptrate fly phylogeny (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha)
2016/02
Power, resolution and bias: recent advances in insect phylogeny driven by the genomic revolution
Current Opinion in Insect Science, 13
2015/07
Response to Comment on “Phylogenomics resolves the timing and pattern of insect evolution”
Science, 6247, 349
2015/03
Die frühen Verzweigungen der Insekten als „gordischer Knoten “der Phylogenomik.: Beiträge des ÖEG-Kolloquiums im Haus der Natur, Salzburg, 21.03. 2015: Kurzfassungen der …
Entomologica Austriaca: Zeitschrift der Österreichischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft, 22
2015/00
Fleas, Flies, Scorpionflies: phylogenetic relationships of Antliophora based on transcriptomics.
2014/00
RNA in phylogenetic reconstruction
2013/12
Selecting informative subsets of sparse supermatrices increases the chance to find correct trees
BMC bioinformatics, 1, 14
2011/06
Improved Phylogenetic Analyses Corroborate a Plausible Position of Martialis heureka in the Ant Tree of Life
PloS one, 6, 6
2010/09
FASconCAT: Convenient handling of data matrices
Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 3, 56
2010/06
A Phylogenomic Approach to Resolve the Arthropod Tree of Life
Molecular biology and evolution, 11, 27
2010/01
Parametric and non-parametric masking of randomness in sequence alignments can be improved and leads to better resolved trees
Frontiers in zoology, 1, 7