How to Measure Fitness of Bacteria?

Theme: Ecology genetics and evolution 

Description: Fitness is a central concept in evolutionary biology. In bacteria, one method to estimate fitness is to grow them in a spectrophotometer and measure their optical density through time. However, transforming these data into an estimate for fitness is not straightforward. In this project, you analyse extensive existing data to test and compare different methods of fitness estimation. Being able to obtain robust fitness estimates for bacteria has many implications, including for our understanding of antibiotic resistance.

Additional Information: No specific background is required but some familiarity with R will be helpful. The depth of the analyses (from using existing scripts to developing own code, including machine learning) can be adjusted to the background of the student. The project may involve lab work if there is interest but will primarily focus on data analysis.

Contact: Assoc Prof Jan Engelstaedter