Moritz Blumer - 2020 cohort

Moritz Blumer lmb215@cam.ac.uk

  Germany

  Genetics, Darwin College

PhD thesis: Genomics of adaptive speciation in Lake Malawi cichlid fishes

  Research interests:

  1. Evolutionary Biology and Speciation

  2. Bioinformatics and Genomics

My PhD focuses on the investigation of mechanisms of vertebrate adaptive speciation at the genomic level in a uniquely suited model system. Malawi cichlids represent a large, recent and presumably ongoing adaptive radiation (a rapid diversification of species fueled by interaction with a diverse environment) and provide one of the best available resources to study the functional basis of speciation. During my PhD in the group of Richard Durbin I will analyse genomic differences of a variety of Malawi cichlid species and build on the existing knowledge from decades of multifaceted research on this outstanding model system in evolutionary biology.

Who or what inspired you to pursue your research interests?

I was inspired to pursue my research interests by the overwhelming biodiversity that exists on our planet and by the many exciting new technologies that now allow us to approach the essential questions of evolutionary biology at the level of entire genomes: In which aspects does the genome change during the transition process of one species becoming many? How do these genomic changes reflect in phenotypes? And how does the environment shape the respective adaptative processes? These questions originally motivated me to study biology and interactions in with numerous great people I met along my bachelor and master studies have ever since inspired me to continue pursuing my interests in this exciting field of research.