Michal Vinkler

Biography

Evolutionary ecology is one of the most fascinating branches of the modern biological research. Being virtually all-embracing, regarding the living world, evolutionary ecology unites the knowledge of individual biological disciplines into one meaningful explanation of the biological diversity we observe in the world around us. I aim to take part in the fun of these discoveries, focusing mainly on birds as model organisms. My research comprises a variety of topics related to host-parasite interactions (ranging from ecological and evolutionary immunology to immunogenetics). A great effort my colleagues and I devote to the study of molecular evolution in immunity genes, their polymorphism and its functional consequences. Hopefully, this endeavour will help us to assess both proximate causes of and ultimate explanations for the evolution and maintenance of genotypic and phenotypic variation in immunological traits in free-living populations of birds and their domesticated relatives.

Mission of the Laboratory for Evolutionary and Ecological Immunology
Health is conditioned by heritable disease resistance and environment. Our aim is to conduct outstanding research focused on the mapping of animal interspecific and intraspecific genetic variability responsible for variation in disease resistance, and the investigation of the association between genotype and environment in forming the immunophenotype in health and disease. Since any knowledge in this field should lead to improvements in biomedicine and biotechnology, our goal is also to support the transfer of the results of our basic research into applied practice in agriculture and nature protection. Currently we are particularly interested in improving natural disease resistance in domestic birds by genome enrichment with resistance-associated genotypes and in improving tools applicable in avian medicine and research.