Oleg Simakov

© Oleg Simakov

At the heart of Oleg Simakov’s research is the genome evolution. He wants to find out which mutation types in the DNA sequence actually led to visible innovations during evolution. In the past years, genome research has collected evidence about the occurrence of certain combinations of these genome changes in different animal groups that are referred to as modalities of genome evolution. The aim of this ERC Starting Grant project is the explicit quantification of genome evolution on multiple levels of genome organisation and to test the hypothesis whether the modalities of genome evolution exist, by referring to the most recent data. To gather important experimental findings for this, he examines a model system belonging to the highly developed and unique group of cephalopods, the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes.