In January, two researchers started their work as new group leaders at the MPI-CBG: Jacqueline Tabler is interested in the cell biology and dynamics of skull growth: "We want to understand how skull expansion is regulated genetically and how variation between species alters the cellular dynamics of skull growth," Tabler explains. To this end, her group continuously develops technologies for live imaging of mouse tissues. Tabler did her PhD at the King’s College in London and worked at the University of Texas at Austin before coming to Dresden. "Dresden was a shock – temperature-wise! I was used to 24 degrees and now have to adjust to -10. But it’s a beautiful winter wonderland!"
The research of Christoph Zechner is mainly theoretical: His group develops statistical methods to study living organisms in a data-driven fashion. "We want to understand the molecular architectures and computations that cells employ to communicate, learn and adapt to each other to deal effectively with noise," he describes his research focus. Christoph Zechner studied Telematics at the TU Graz and until recently worked at the ETH Zürich, based in a lab in Basel. How was settling down in Dresden? "Dresden is super, everything is very relaxed", he says.