Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Molecular Parasitology

About us

The Department of Molecular Parasitology was founded in 1995 and is part of the Institute of Biology (Faculty of life sciences) of the Humboldt University. Director is Prof. Dr. Richard Lucius. Following the great tradition of parasitology as a discipline in Berlin, we offer a large spectrum of subjects in teaching and research, covering classical as well as molecular parasitology. Teaching is offered as lectures, seminars, colloquia, intensive lab courses and excursions. Our research is focussed towards the immunobiology of parasitic nematodes (filariae), as well as unicellular parasites (coccidia). Since parasites are of particular importance in tropical countries, we maintain cooperations with groups in Africa and Asia, as well as with groups in Europe and the US.

Der Lehrstuhl heute   Das Institutsgebäude vor dem 2. Weltkrieg
Chair recent   Institution building before 2. World War

We have 11 staff members and additional personnel funded by grants, thus our crew amounts to about 30 persons. The Department is located in a wonderfully renovated old building in the former veterinary campus in the center of Berlin, in close vicinity of the medical school of our university and many research institutions. Our modern labs, where we do research and teach courses, are equipped for nearly all types of molecular biological and immunological studies. In addition, the building houses a lecture theater, a small library, a teaching collection of parasite specimen and a large slide collection. The Department is home of the competence center for electron microscopy of the Institute for Biology with its transmission and scanning electron microscopes.

The department also houses the Interdisciplinary Center for Infection Biology and Immunity (ZIBI), that coordinates activities of research, teaching and promotion of young scientists of about 25 research groups in Berlin. We also coordinate the research training group 1121 "Genetic and immunologic determinants of pahtogen-host-interaction (Grako-1121) from here.