The Team behind the 1001HDG project

The 1001HDG project is a huge collaborative effort of scientists with complementary skills.

Robert Kofler – Vetmeduni Vienna
Robert initiated the 1001HDG project. He is an expert in transposable elements, bioinformatics and genomics. Robert is building on a fantastic team, including Sarah Saadain (experienced entomologist) and Philipp Hummer (established the protocol for DNA extraction from historical specimens)
Ron Pinhasi – University of Vienna
Ron is an expert in ancient DNA and the impact of humans on the evolution of pathogens and disease.
Elisabeth Haring and Martin Kapun – Natural History Museum Vienna
Elisabeth and Martin have diverse expertise in areas such as museomics, taxonomy, population genetics, and bioinformatics.
Bernard Y. Kim – Princeton University
Bernard is leading an effort to generate long-read assemblies for all Drosophilidae. He is an expert in population genetics and the genomics of Drosophilidae
Sarah Signor – North Dakota State University
Sarah is an expert in transposable elements, bioinformatics and evolutionary genetics
Marcus Stensmyr – Lund University
Marcus sequenced the first genomes of historical Drosophilidae. He is an expert in olfactory adaptations and the evolutionary history of drosophilids.

Collaborating Museums

We collaborated with the following museums and natural history collections.

Smithonian NMNH, Washington DC (D. simulans)
NHM Vienna (D. histrio, D. busckii, D. repleta, D.immigrans, D. funebris, D. melanogaster, Phortica variegata, Phortica semivirgo)

Pictures of us

At the Smithonian NMNH (Washington) with the D. simulans specimens from Alfred Sturtevant.

PhD student Sarah Saadain receiving the prestigious Carl von Schreibers prize for her work with the genomes of historical cockroaches (150 years old, from NHM Vienna). We are super proud – great work Sarah!

PhD student Philipp won the SMBE 2025 Graduate Student Excellence Award – we are very proud of him 🙂