Roberto Morán-Tovar

"El mundo no está hecho de átomos, está hecho de historias" 

Eduardo Galeano

I grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, where I studied physics and biology. I currently work in the group of Michael Lässig at the Institute for Biological Physics at the University of Cologne. Combining models from statistical physics, systems biology, and evolutionary theory, my overarching goal is to better understand nonequilibrium information processing in biological systems. My current research focuses on the coevolution of viruses and the adaptive immune system. Specifically, I am developing mechanistic models of antigen immune recognition, clonal dynamics, and receptor repertoire remodeling. I like to think of the immune system as a biophysical learning system. In this context, I am interested in understanding how it is trained during development, how it learns during antigen exposure, and why it fails in autoimmune disease. The immune system is a beautiful and very complex system. Sometimes I think that all biological (and perhaps physical) questions can be studied in this system. Beyond my research interests, I am passionate about teaching and community building in science.

Contact:

--------------------------------------------------------

rmorantovar@gmail.de

r.morantovar@uni-koeln.de

Institute for Biological Physics

Zülpicher Straße 77, 50937, Köln, Germany

University of Cologne

--------------------------------------------------------