Overview

Research-Initiatives

Translational Biodiversity Genomics Genomic Biodiversity Research

© Florian Schulz

The LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, TBG, is dedicated to genomic biodiversity research. The focus ranges from unicellular organisms to mammals, for which genomic data are not available yet. TBG will sequence 1000 genomes each year of these under-studied organisms. This data will not only be made available for comparative genomics research, but will also be studied in applied (translational) fields such as natural product genomics, genomic biomonitoring and functional environmental genomics. As a first highlight, the complete genome of the blue whale as well as six other rorqual species were decrypted for the first time*. This allowed to study the evolutionary history of the largest animals in the world to understand how their diversity could evolve in the oceans without geographical barriers. The investigated rorquals have a high genetic diversity, which contributes to the recovery of their populations after the whaling moratorium 1978.

* Árnason, et al. (2018). Science advances 4.4: eaap9873

LOEWE Research Centre

Partners

  • Senckenberg Nature Research Society, Frankfurt am Main
  • Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
  • Justus Liebig University Giessen
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, Frankfurt am Main

Fields of study

  • Biodiversity
  • Bioinformatic
  • Biomonitoring
  • Genomics
  • Natural Products Genomics

Funding period

Since 2018

Project Coordinator

  • Dr Michael Hiller, Professor for Comparative Genomics, Goethe-University Frankfurt
  • Dr Miklós Bálint (deputy), Professor for Functional Environmental Genomics, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen
  • Dr Eric Helfrich (deputy), Prfoessor for Natural Product Genomics, Goethe-University Frankfurt

Locations

  • Frankfurt am Main
  • Gießen

More Information

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