A new home at METU
Melike has moved to the METU Informatics Institute in Ankara, and part of the group continues in Jena as the Dönertaş Associated Group.
New review paper published in FEBS Letters!
A new FEBS Letters review, led by Mark Olenik, on why robust study design is a prerequisite for robust microbiome ageing research.
Grill and Chill
Good food, great company, and another successful summer Grill & Chill.
FLI retreat 2026
Our group at the FLI retreat in the Thuringian Forest — talks, posters, a treasure hunt, and time with our FLI colleagues.
Prasoon Pandey joins the lab as an LGSA Fellow
Welcome Prasoon, who joins the group with a PhD fellowship from the Leibniz Graduate School on Aging — a joint programme between FLI and Friedrich Schiller University Jena.
Mini-Group Retreat
A day of AI tools, collaboration, and a mini hackathon—coffee with a view from JenTower, team discussions, and debugging with humans and models.
2026
Aging and Microbiome Conference 2025 (AMC2025)
AMC returned for its third edition — two days of keynotes, panel debate with live audience polling, vibrant poster sessions, and sponsor bingo. Co-organised by Clara Correia-Melo, Dario Valenzano, Melike Dönertaş, and Katarzyna Winek.
3 days of science at GJAM 2025
Our group had an oral talk + 5 posters at GJAM 2025. Huge kudos to first-year BSc student Efe Begik for presenting his project on comparative proteomics of brain aging & neurodegeneration.
ISMB 2025
Tayyaba received an OBF Event Fellowship to attend ISMB/ECCB 2025 in Liverpool — co-led a Mendelian Randomization tutorial, attended talks, including keynotes from John Jumper and Fabian Theis, and reflects on a packed week.
Tayyaba awarded OBF Event Fellowship for ISMB 2025
Congrats to Tayyaba Alvi on receiving an Event Fellowship from the Open Bioinformatics Foundation to attend ISMB/ECCB 2025 in Liverpool.
2025
Q&A in Communications Biology: Decoding ageing
Melike spoke with Communications Biology about the lab's research on the microbiome and ageing — the journey from evolutionary genomics at METU to leading a group at FLI, the prospects for delaying ageing, and building inclusive labs.
Ulaş awarded Joachim Herz Stiftung Add-on Fellowship
Huge congrats to Ulaş Işıldak for the Add-on Fellowship from Joachim Herz Stiftung! Ulaş develops computational methods to study the gut microbiome in aging.
Aging and Microbiome Conference 2024 (AMC2024)
Building on JMM23, we hosted AMC2024 — 1.5 days bringing together ~90 researchers around the intersection of aging and the microbiome. Chaired by Clara Correia-Melo and Dario Valenzano, co-organised by Melike Dönertaş and Katarzyna Winek.
Ready. Set. Experiment! — wetlab is open
Our wetlab is up and running. Special thanks to İsmail Güderer for being the driving force behind making it a reality. Time to get those pipettes moving!
2024
Jena Microbiome Meeting 2023 (JMM23)
We hosted the first Jena Microbiome Meeting at FLI — a one-day symposium bringing aging into Jena's microbiome research community. Co-organised by Clara Correia-Melo, Melike Dönertaş, and Katarzyna Winek.
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