What distinguishes living from non-living organisms?

Johannes Jäger joins Guest Program at CSBD

Swiss systems biologist Johannes “Yogi” Jäger from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Vienna just joined the Center for Systems Biology (CSBD) Guest Program. During his four-month research stay he will work together with the Tomancak group at the MPI-CBG. With his project "Understanding Organisms and Other Adaptive Complex Systems” Yogi brings an interesting approach towards the fundamental question of “What is life?”. Combining a biological, mathematical and philosophical analysis he aims to explore a number of rather conceptual questions such as what defines the peculiar nature of organismic organization or what it actually means to have a satisfactory understanding of an organism. Having profund trans-disciplinary experience in experimental biology, dynamical systems modeling, and philosophy Jäger's approach promises horizon-broadening insights.

“I know Pavel Tomancak well and we always wanted to work together. The CSBD Guest Program finally gave us the opportunity to join forces and I’m very excited to see the outcome of this combination”, Yogi says. 

The CSBD nurtures a wide-spread international network. In addition to its ELBE Postdoc Program and PhD Program (IMPRS CellDevoSys) the center continuously offers funded opportunities for visitors working in the area of its mission. During their stay visiting faculty closely interacts with research groups at the CSBD as well as labs at the MPI-CBG and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS).