Virus Ecology and Evolution (VEE)
Assistant Professor
My research broadly focuses on virus evolution, genome evolution, and phylogenetics, with special attention to virus-host co-evolution and phenotypic/genotypic novelty.
Postdoctoral researcher
Virome during faecal microbiota transplantation.
Postdoctoral researcher
(co-supervised by Alejandro Manzano Marín)
Mobile genetic elements in giant viruses.
Lab Technician
I support team members with various laboratory tasks to help them run their experiments smoothly.
PhD researcher
My thesis focuses on the role of mobile genetic elements and extracellular vesicles in the arms race among the viruses, competing parasites, and hosts.
PhD researcher
I’m interested in exploring the role of viral tRNAs during infection and investigating interactions among giant viruses.
Master student
(co-supervised by Daniela Schwarz)
My Master’s thesis focuses on the competition and fitness in giant viruses. I approach this by performing competition experiments.
✉️ m.faruk.saglam.38[*]gmail.com
Links
🤝 Collaborators
🎓 Alumni
Elias Konovalov 🇨🇾. Master student (Erasmus+), 2026. Radboud University, Netherlands (VEE lab). Currently PhD. student at Radboud University. 
LinkedIn
Lotte Mayer 🇦🇹. Master student (Bachelor/Master thesis), 2023-26. University of Vienna, Austria. Currently PhD. student at Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). 
0009-0008-3200-0722
Mia Tišma 🇧🇦. Undergraduate intern (Bachelor thesis), 2025. University of Vienna, Austria.
David Wolfschwenger 🇦🇹. Undergraduate intern (Bachelor thesis), 2025. University of Vienna, Austria.
Ruixuan Zhang 🇨🇳. Visiting researcher (PhD researcher), 2024. Kyoto University, Japan.
Lucia Splittgerber. Undergraduate intern (Bachelor thesis), 2023. University of Vienna, Austria.
Julia Haller. Undergraduate intern (Bachelor thesis), 2021. University of Vienna, Austria.
Tatiana Solomatina. Undergraduate intern (Bachelor), 2020-2021. University of Vienna, Austria.