The coevolution between hosts and parasites is increasingly being recognized as one of the major drivers for the evolution of genetic diversity. Consequently, the vertebrate immune system combines a plethora of specific and unspecific mechanisms to defend the body against invading (and coevolving) pathogens. My research uses both molecular and computational approaches to investigate the genomic organisation of the immunologically important major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in both fish and humans, and to identify evolutionary factors shaping individual variability at the MHC, from the sequence level to genomic organisation and protein structure. A current focus is the link between MHC/HLA variability and both infectious and autoimmune diseases in human populations.
Ort: INB Seminarraum
