Guest group Melkonian

Barbara and Michael are senior scientists, retired from the University of Cologne. Michael is Senior Professor of Phycology at the University of Duisburg Essen, and both are Honorary Professors at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho-Chi-Minh City, Vietnam. Combined, they have 90 years of research experience studying the biology of (micro)algae. Their current research involves large-scale algal genomics in collaboration with BGI/China National Gene Bank and AGIS, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, both at Shenzhen, with emphasis on evolution of algal-microbe interactions, endosymbiosis, plant terrestrialization, and horizontal gene transfer. They also host a research collection of living microalgae (the MEL-collection), currently holding ~1,500 strains.