people
members of the lab
Principal Investigator
Johannes Cairns, PhD
Johannes Cairns is Principal Investigator of the Microbial Evolutionary Genetics (MEG) Lab, operating between Lund University and the University of Turku. He is Assistant Professor & DDLS Fellow at Lund University and Collegium researcher & Docent (Adjunct Professor) in Evolutionary Genetics and Bioinformatics at the University of Turku, with affiliations in interdisciplinary antimicrobial resistance and data-driven life science environments in Sweden and Finland.
His research develops predictive, quantitative understanding of microbial evolution, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance, community resilience, and infection dynamics. The group integrates experimental evolution, synthetic and clinically inspired microbial communities, genetic engineering, genomics, and bioinformatics to determine when resistance evolution and treatment outcomes are predictable, and when they depend on ecological interactions among coexisting microbes.
The lab combines wet-lab experimentation with computational modelling and close collaboration across microbiology, evolutionary biology, ecology, and data science.
If you are interested in joining the group, please get in touch by email at johannes.cairns at med.lu.se
Postdoc
Anna Bischofberger, PhD
I am a post-doctoral researcher with an SNF Postdoc mobility fellowship, affiliated with the experimental evolution and microbial genetics groups at the University of Turku. I am interested in the assembly, temporal dynamics, and resilience of multi-species microbial communities. In my current work, I use both experimental and computational approaches to investigate how complex communities react when exposed to environmental stressors, particularly resource scarcity and antimicrobial substances.
PhD researcher
Inga-Katariina Aapalampi, MSc
I am a doctoral researcher at the Department of Biology, University of Turku. I am interested in how different stressors affect bacterial communities. Also, I am particularly interested in studying the development of antibiotic resistance and eco-evolutionary dynamics in multispecies communities.
PhD researcher
Adamaris Muñiz Tirado, MSc
Hello! I am a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Turku. I study how climate‑driven temperature changes shape host–microbiota coevolution in a Drosophila model system. More broadly, I’m interested in how environmental and human‑imposed pressures influence microbial evolution, horizontal gene transfer, and host–microbe interactions. My work draws on experimental evolution and molecular approaches to explore how these relationships shift under changing conditions.
MSc researcher
Aava Rantakokko, BSc
I am a master’s student in genetics at the University of Turku. I’m doing my master’s thesis on testing the transfer of DNA barcodes to different Gram-negative bacteria for lineage tracking. I am broadly interested in genetics, but particularly in molecular and microbial genetics.