I am broadly interested in vertebrate evolution, molecular ecology, speciation genetics, genomics, phylogeography, biodiversity, and behavior. My research emphasizes reticulate evolution through interspecies interactions, reshaping our understanding of genetic and phenotypic diversity and their evolutionary relationships. I study biodiversity generation via hybridization and polyploidization in fish and frogs, addressing questions like genome duplication, hybrids’ genetics, sex evolution, mitochondrial co-evolution, hybrid fertility, and hybrid speciation. These studies foster interdisciplinary collaborations.

Initially supported by the German Research Foundation and a Heisenberg-Fellowship (2012-2017), a major research topic is the evolution of sex determination in vertebrates, especially fish and frogs. From 2017 to 2020, I coordinated the STURGEoNOMICS project at the IGB, yielding genomic and sex determination insights for sturgeon. We have been and are applying our research to ecotoxicological questions, such as endocrine disruption in non-model vs. model frog species, with the long term goal of deriving pollution thresholds to protect the environment (ERGO project).

Collaborating with experts at the IGB, Department IV, and the Czech Academy of Sciences, the current research topic is the evolution of sex determination systems in hybrid ‘asexual’ (clonal and hemiclonal) fish and frogs, supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG STO493/8).

In the ODER~SO project (TP5), I am also involved in research to improve our understanding of the genome evolution of the toxic microalga (Prymnesium parvum s.l.) that mechanistically caused a generally anthropogenic pollution-related environmental disaster in the Oder River in 2022.