ILRS
International Leibniz Research School for Microbial and Biomolecular Interactions Jena

The ILRS is the graduate school of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute - in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The main research focus of the ILRS PhD projects is to gain insight into the microbial and biomolecular interactions underlying the communication processes among microorganisms in diverse habitats. In their natural habitat, microorganisms do not occur in isolation but live in close association with other organisms of different species and developmental stages. Their interactions can take many forms, ranging from mutual symbiosis to parasitic interactions. How these complex, multi-organismic networks are regulated by microbial communication is still poorly understood. Three main subcategories are addressed within the ILRS graduate training program: interactions between microorganisms, interactions between hosts and microbial pathogens, and the role and analysis of networks / bioinformatics. The interdisciplinary PhD projects of the ILRS combine methods of microbiology, natural product chemistry, chemical ecology, bioinformatics and systems biology. The ILRS Faculty is composed of professors and group leaders of different disciplines from all participating institutions forming a highly interactive network of scientific discourse and experimental work. The ILRS is part of the Jena School for Microbial Communication (JSMC) which has been established in 2006 as an umbrella organization of three existing Research Training Groups.