Arthropod sense organs

Evolution and Development

We are studying the development of various external and internal sense organs in spiders and flies.
We use Macro- and Micro-Evo Devo comparisons to reveal network changes underlying the diversification and evolution of sense organs regarding their number, distribution and type.

Spider Genome Evolution

Gene/Genome duplication

We reveal gene duplication events in spiders and insects to study their impact on phenotypic diversification and evolutionary novelties.
We use comparative developmental biology combined with mutli-omics to reveal differences in paralog expression and function with special focus on sense organ development.