Michael Lässig and his group work on biophysics and quantitative biology, with an emphasis on theory and data analysis of evolutionary systems. A current research topic is predicting the dynamics of fast-evolving pathogens, in particular, of the human influenza virus. This work combines large-scale genomic data analysis with methods from statistical physics, evolutionary genetics, and information theory. Michael Lässig has worked extensively on equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical physics, and he has made significant contributions to evolutionary biology.

Selected publications

1. Lässig M., Mustonen V., and Walczak A. (2017). Predicting evolution. Nature Ecol. Evol. 1, 0077.
2. Luksza M. and Lässig M. (2014). A predictive fitness model for influenza. Nature 507:57-61.
3. Nourmohammad A., Held T., and Lässig M. (2013). Universality and predictability in molecular quantitative genetics. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development 23:684-93.
4. Strelkowa N. and Lässig M. (2012). Clonal interference in the evolution of influenza. Genetics 192:671-682.
5. Mustonen V. and Lässig M. (2010). Fitness flux and ubiquity of adaptive evolution. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107:4248-53.
6. Mustonen V. and Lässig M. (2009). From fitness landscapes to seascapes: non-equilibrium dynamics of selection and adaptation. Trends in Genetics 25:111-119.
7. Mustonen V., Kinney J., Callan C.G. Jr., and Lässig M. (2008). Energy-dependent fitness: a quantitative model for the evolution of yeast transcription factor binding sites. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 105:12376-81.
8. Mustonen V. and Lässig M. (2007). Adaptations to fluctuating selection in Drosophila. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 104:2277-82.
9. Berg J. and Lässig M. (2004). Local graph alignment and motif search in biological networks. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 101:14689-14694.
10. Berg J., Willmann S., and Lässig M. (2004). Adaptive evolution of transcription factor binding sites. BMC Evol. Biol. 4:42.