Team

Pelin Yilmaz A molecular biologist training on the computational aspects of microbial ecology. Actively maintaining the SSU reference taxonomy (SSURef) and developing MIMARKS.
Elmar Prüße A computer scientist with a strong focus on algorithms for sequence alignment. Although, he never wanted to dive deeply into the ARB system he is now the ARB expert of the SILVA team. He is responsible for the new aligner and actively maintaining and enhancing ARB for the users.
Christian Quast Again a computer scientist with a broad expertise in software and database development and advanced algorithms for automatic functional annotations. Getting involved in the SILVA project he is now our expert in automatic data retrieval, quality checks and database management. He is the one who keeps the whole backbone up and running.
Jan Gerken A computer scientist working on enhancements of the chimera detection in the project to improve the database quality even more. As a software developer he supports the development of the SILVA web projects.
Timmy Schweer Developer of the job dispatcher that handles the distribution of the Align-, Export- and TestProbe jobs on the MPI internal cluster. He integrates new features on the SILVA website and also worked on SILVA's quality management.
Belinda Kröning She is our specialist dealing with all the small and big issues of running the SILVA webpage. Combining science, function and design in a team of computer scientists and biologists is by far not an easy job. Although she just joined the team some month ago her impact on the usability of the webpage is already quite apparent.
Bernhard Fuchs A molecular ecologist who wants to know "Who is out there?" and "What are they (the microorganisms) doing?". With about 15 years of ARB experience behind him he is the lead tester of the new databases and ARB versions. His team provides sequences, designs probes and curates the alignments.
Jörg Peplies A trained biologist with a focus on technology development for diagnostic microarrays to identify microorganisms. He spend already many years in working with ARB at the MPI in Bremen. He is now the CEO of the company Ribocon and provides his expertise in alignments, data curation and phylogeny for the project.
Frank Oliver Glöckner He had worked with ARB since he started his career in microbiology at the Technical University Munich 20 years ago. Inspired by Wolfgang Ludwig's vision to create a software that brings together biologists and computer scientists in the field of sequence analysis and phylogeny to serve the community, he initiated the SILVA project in 2005.
The ARB development Team in Munich Many thanks to Wolfgang Ludwig, Ralf Westram and Oliver Strunk for decades of expertise in ARB phylogeny and databases. The SILVA project could have never been realised without the long-standing support in software development and database curation by the Munich Team.
The Molecular Ecology Group at MPI Bremen More than 30 molecular ecologists are working under the guidance of Rudolf Amann on diversity analysis, in situ hybridisation, cloning and sequencing. They are our extended test bed for all the developments. They provide curated sequences and new ideas for ARB and SILVA. Special thanks goes to Katrin Knittel.
If you want to know more visit us at www.microbial-genomics.de