Press Office
Press releases
Welcome to our new research group on „Marine Omics“

Welcome to our new research group on „Marine Omics“

Apr 18, 2023

The HIFMB-MPG-Bridging Group for Marine Omics, led by Prof. Dr. A. Murat Eren, is a cooperation between the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity.

From February 1, 2023, we are excited to welcome a new research group at our institute. Headed by Prof. Dr. A. Murat Eren (Meren), the “HIFMB-MPG-Bridging Group for Marine Omics” is dedicated to the study of microbial biodiversity and its present and future in changing environments.

“I am very honored to join the ranks of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology that has been home to great science and many early-career and senior colleagues that I spent much of my career looking up to. With this opportunity, I am very much looking forward to establishing stronger collaborative interactions and push forward novel computational perspectives to exploit new and big data streams and advance our understanding of marine microbial systems at high levels of resolution.”, says Meren, who plans to split his time between Oldenburg and Bremen.

Meren obtained his PhD from the University of New Orleans and subsequently worked at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, USA, as a postdoctoral researcher. He became an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago in 2015 and was appointed to Professor of Ecosystem Data Science at the University of Oldenburg in February 2022.

The group’s name refers to several emerging approaches of biology all carrying the suffix “-omics”, such as genomics, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, pangenomics, or phylogenomics. Collectively these strategies enable detailed descriptions of the ecology and evolution of organisms in controlled environments or in their natural habitats through molecular surveys. “I am a computer scientist and microbial ecologist who studies microbial lifestyles through integrated use of ‘omics approaches to understand strategies by which microbes respond to and thrive in their ever-changing environments”, Meren describes his focus of research. “To achieve that, we develop software tools and molecular workflows that are inspired and driven by fundamental questions in microbiology.”

With the now-established bridging group, the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM) in Bremen and the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) in Oldenburg aim at a closer cooperation in the field of microbial diversity research. The group combines the expertise of the MPIMM in the field of marine microbiology, molecular biology method development and in situ sensing with the capacity of the HIFMB to study biodiversity change. Activities of the group will be carried out both in Bremen and in Oldenburg, optimally utilizing the facilities, infrastructures and expertise of both institutions. The promotion of young scientists and empowering them with state-of-the-art computational strategies will be another focus of the group’s activities.