Felix M. Key

Felix M. Key is a researcher in evolutionary genetics and microbiology. He holds a PhD (summa cum laude) from the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2016) and conducted postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Science of Human History (2016–2018). He joined MIT’s Lieberman lab in 2018, studying intrahost pathogen evolution. Starting in 2020, he became a group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, focusing on bacterial evolution using medical and archaeological samples.

Education:

• Bachelor’s in Human Biology, University of Greifswald (2010)
• PhD in Population Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2016)

Research Interests: Felix’s work spans ancient pathogen genomics, human adaptation, and bioinformatic tools for analyzing archaeological DNA. He investigates how pathogens evolve in human populations over millennia, linking genetic changes to historical events like the Neolithic Revolution. His recent projects include reconstructing Salmonella’s evolutionary history and developing methods to authenticate ancient microbial DNA.

Selected Achievements:

• Developed HOPS, a tool for detecting pathogen DNA in ancient samples (Genome Biology, 2019).
• Identified genetic adaptations in human cold receptors linked to latitude (PLoS Genetics, 2018).
• Highlighted the role of balancing selection in maintaining advantageous genetic diversity (Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 2014).

Grants & Awards:

• Two-year fellowship from the German Research Foundation (2018–2020)
• PhD awarded summa cum laude

Labs & Future Work: As head of the Key Lab at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, he will explore bacterial evolution using interdisciplinary approaches, integrating medical and archaeological data to understand pathogen dynamics across time and space.