Moebius Group Effects of the physical world on dynamics in biological systems PhD projects advertised We have currently two PhD projects advertised: Modelling coevolution in aquatic environments shaped by flow – How do microbes and their viruses coevolve if they are constantly separated and brought together by flow? – Project Description & Information Evolvability of interactions between bacterial outer surface molecules and bacteriophages: from atoms to biofilms – How do states of phage and host and their environment shape coevolution? – Project Description & Information Research Interests We are interested in how the physical world shapes the dynamics in biological systems. Most often, it is the evolutionary dynamics we are investigating, but with collaborators we are also exploring the dynamics of individual molecules. We are a combined theoretical and experimental group and care deeply about the interaction between theory and experiment. We use a range of theoretical approaches and simulation techniques to investigate evolution in abstract models and specific biological systems, from the infection of bacteria by their viruses to the evolution of resistance to pesticides. Experimentally, our current model system of choice is bacteriophage T7 replicating on the bacterium E. coli, where we aim for experiments with explicit spatial structure that can be analysed and described quantitatively. In collaborations with colleagues, we investigate other systems, such as infection of the plant N. benthamiana with the plant virus TEV. While much of our research aims to understand basic principles behind evolutionary dynamics in complex environments, we often perform our research with applications in mind. List of group members: Piotr Burzynski, PhD Student Chris Lewis, PhD student Thomas Tunstall, Postdoc List of publications: See Wolfram Möbius’ profile on LSI website Dr Wolfram Moebius