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Research Themes

The aim of the IZ LIST is to investigate different vital processes in space and time. For this purpose, we are uniting researchers from the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, who share a common vision to understand, quantify, and model the dynamic spatial and temporal organizational principles of life. One challenge is to identify topics that are of interest to scientists from different fields. At our retreat, we were able to define three topics that we want to investigate together. 

On the left - thermometer on snow shows low temperatures under zero, on the right - thermometer with high temperature plug on sand on sunny day

Temperature

Temperature affects all processes of life and all organisms - from microscopic bacteria to sessile plants to us humans - have to adapt to our environment in order to survive. The issue of temperature and adaptation to increasingly extreme climate conditions is a key topic, especially in view of the already clearly noticeable consequences of climate change. 
Temperature is also a central factor within the IZ LIST, which we want to investigate from various points of view in different organisms and in connection with various processes. Central questions include:

  • How to measure temperature in space and time?
  • Can we calculate/predict temperature changes in well defined systems?
  • Can we actively influence temperature?
clock in space, time concept

Spatio-temporal phenomena

If we observe the world around us, be it on macroscopic or microscopic scale, we will notice that all of life and nature is affected by patterns in space and time which appear in a wide range of phenomena from physics and chemistry to biology and social dynamics. These patterns emerge as a consequence of the combined behavior of many individual elements, such as particles, atoms, molecules, cells, or organisms. The IZ LIST aims to uncover the fundamental principles that cause specific patterns producing distinct spatio-temporal phenomena.

 

3d renderings of human cell

Whole cell infrastructure

Everything is related to everything. If this applies to anything, then it applies to the cell. Although decades of research have distanced us from the cell as a complete black box, every discovery seems to have raised even more questions that need to be addressed. Therefore whole cell models have attracted immense interest, but their creation is beyond the capacity of individual groups. Moreover, the establishment of a whole cell model does not only require massive amounts of data, but sound concepts to integrate them and to make the resulting models understandable and computationally tractable. What better way to tackle such an undertaking than with expertise from all areas of the natural and life sciences and mathematics?