Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES)

The CEES is a centre for integrative biological research that has been awarded the status of a national centre of excellence by the Norwegian Research Council. The CEES is based at the Department of Biology, University of Oslo and is chaired by Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth.

The purpose of the CEES is to combine competence from various fields of biology, molecular biology, bioinformatics and statistics in order to approach major, but still unresolved, scientific challenges. An overall goal is to achieve an increased understanding of how living organisms respond and adapt to environmental changes.

The centre has funding to engage in cutting-edge research, it features a modern and well-equipped molecular lab facilitated for high-throughput sequencing, as well as a broad spectrum of field facilities. We are focusing both on development of new theoretical/statistical methods/models and on diverse ecological and evolutionary questions in empirical systems ranging from microorganisms and plants to aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates.

On-going research includes subjects such as gene flow and the early stages of diversification, selection and evolvability, evolutionary effects of human-altered ecological systems (e.g., harvesting and climate change) and genetic aspects of reproductive isolation.

Upcoming Darwin anniversary event: Saturday 21 November 13.00 Gamle festsal "The response to Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species" With Sigurd Osberg and Kevin Padian More information

CEES lead consortium finishes sequencing of the cod genome Researchers at CEES has completed a high-quality annotated draft genome of the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, using a shotgun sequencing strategy that relied exclusively on sequence data generated on 454 GS FLX Titanium platform. Continue reading.

CEES awarded 23 million NOK in collaboration with Oslo University Hospital On the 7th September 2009, CEES in collaboration with Institute of Medical Genetics (IMG), at Oslo University Hospital, were awarded 23 million Norwegian kroner from the Research Council of Norway (RCN) to establish the Norwegian High-Throughput Sequencing Centre (NSC). Continue reading.