Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 21: Focus Session: Sequence Spaces, Populations and Evolution

Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 15:00–17:30, HÜL/S386

Evolutionary processes are central in the living world: they leave patterns in sequence databases and underlie phenomena such as cancer progression and antibiotic resistance. Achieving a quantitative understanding of evolution relies on two key components: variation and selection. The first component - variation - arises from random mutations in genotypic sequences that lead to selectable changes in phenotype and fitness. Thus, variation depends on how phenotype and fitness are distributed in biological sequence spaces. The second component - selection * shapes the composition of future generations and thus acts at the population level. Since these components jointly shape evolutionary processes, this focus session will encompass both: variation in sequence spaces and selection on the population level.

Organized by Nora Martin (Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona) and Paula Garcia Galindo (University of Cambridge)

	15:00	BP 21.1	Invited Talk: Microbial Behavior in Context — •Fernanda Pinheiro
	15:30	BP 21.2	Insertions and Deletions make important contributions to the arrival of phenotypic variation — •Manuela Giraud and Nora Martin
	15:45	BP 21.3	Bias toward simplicity and symmetry in protein self-assembly — •Prarthana Agrawal
	16:00		15 min. break
	16:15	BP 21.4	Invited Talk: The navigability of fitness landscapes shaped by global and universal epistasis — •Joachim Krug
	16:45	BP 21.5	Adaptive Response of Quantitative Traits to a Moving Fitness Landscape — •Sakshi Pahujani, Yuna Zhang, Markus G. Stetter, and Joachim Krug
	17:00	BP 21.6	A simplified Rough Mount Fuji model clarifies how local adaptive walks can reach the highest peaks in rugged fitness landscapes — •Kye E Hunter and Nora Martin
	17:15	BP 21.7	Mean adaptive basin size for fitness peaks in the House of Cards landscape — •Daniel Oros and Joachim Krug