22–23 September 2026 
Institute of Plant Science and Microbiology (IPM), Klein Flottbek, University of Hamburg

Rapid adaptive changes are one of the key characteristics of living systems — from cellular interactions to ecosystem functions. Phenotypic changes, selection and functional adaptation are based on evolutionary processes at various scales of time and space. A basic skill to understand these processes is evolutionary thinking. However, each dimension and each scale is specific, and we rarely choose to think out of the box or discuss our ideas with others.

As LFF Rapid Adaptive Change (LFF-RAC, UHH and LIB), we invite you together with researchers from the Hamburg area to exchange ideas and discuss potential synergies at our symposium on “Rapid Adaptive Change.” The symposium is structured around four sessions covering the following topics:

• Evolution and adaptation in the context of environmental change (Eva Stukenbrock: Structural genomics in a plant-pathogenic fungus reveals rapid evolution and functional diversification of secreted proteins)
• Collections, museomics and evolution (Gudrun Kadereit: Collection-based research in evolution – opportunities and challenges)
• Evolutionary aspects of infections and medicine (Hinrich Schulenburg: Evolutionary medicine of antibiotic therapy: How to prevent rapid bacterial adaptation to antibiotics)
• New approaches in evolutionary studies (Lutz Becks: Eco-evolutionary dynamics in microbial interactions)

We will start on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at noon, and continue until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23, to present and discuss our ideas around this topic. One aim is to evaluate the possibilities of joint funding, and we will reserve the last session for potential PIs to present their plans and search for interested colleagues.

-> Please register if you are interested. Submissions of talks and posters are very welcome! We especially welcome posters from early-stage PhD and Master’s candidates to illustrate and discuss the most recent approaches and techniques.
 
Dominik Begerow and Kathrin Otte for the LFF-RAC team