Klingenberg
Klingenberg – The Professor, The Town, and a Geometric Morphometric Lab .
It’s not unusual for a name to have multiple meanings. In our case, it is the name of a world-recognised laboratory run by Professor Chris Klingenberg and a unique destination in Germany. The professor has taught various organisms centred courses such as entomology and zoology. He has also been active in teaching method-based courses such as evolution, systematics, and morphometrics. The professor’s main teaching emphasis is in morphometrics. Morphometry or morphometrics is the quantitative analysis of form. Teaching is online-based and available to the University of Manchester students and interested parties from all over the world.
Chris also teaches tutorials, practicals, and lectures through the Anatomical Sciences Programme. The programme enables students to study the structures of different organisms. Chris is also active in Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL), a teaching and learning method based on a self-directed enquiry by the student. He gives regular talks at workshops on geometric morphometrics in various parts of the world. Prof. Klingenberg is the recipient of several awards, including the Governor General’s Gold Medal from the University of Alberta and the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution. Prizes include Highly Cited Researcher in 2018 and 2019.
Klingenberg am Main – A Town of Terraced Vineyards .
Klingenberg town is in the west of Bavaria, Germany. The first mention of the establishment as a town was in the 13th century, and most of the old town is still in remarkable shape. However, Klingenberg am Main is best known for its red wine cultivation. Terraced vineyards on the south and north of the town are easily seen from a distance.
Documentary evidence shows that Klingenberg has been taking part in viniculture since 1261. Some of the oldest vineyards in the town are Schlossberg, Hochberg, and Rauchenberg. Wine cultivation is still very much alive in the town, with many and narrow lateral terraces shaping the landscape of the town. Each terrace level is supported by a metre of red sandstone stone walls. Vineyards in Klingenberg are cultivated only by hand because the terraces are only accessible via stairways and plenty of steps.
The Klingenberg Lab – The Study of Fly Wings .
The Klingenberg Lab is at The University of Manchester. The goal of the laboratory is to study the evolution of morphological structures. Their initial projects involved a series of research projects into drosophila wings and skulls of mice and dogs as model systems. Drosophila is a type of fly also called small fruit fly, wine fly, pornace fly, or vinegar fly.
The lab uses morphometric methods to investigate differences in size variations and shapes of morphological structures. Team members combine these methods with experimental developmental and quantitative genetics experimental protocols. They are part of an independent group of labs currently working on different evolutionary biology aspects and their relationships with phylogeny, genetics, and development. The principal investigator at the lab is Prof. Chris Klingenberg, supported by various PhD and post-doctorate students.
MorphoJ – An Investigative Tool From the Klingenberg Lab .
Analysis of data on shape requires a combination of molecular ecological or genetic information. This means researchers need to depend on tools to carry out the geometric morphometric analysis. The study of morphometry often uses the arrangement of morphological landmarks as the data basis and extraction of shape information via Procrustes superimposition. MorphoJ software from the Klingenberg Lab uses this approach and several others to analyse shapes of different biological sources. The programme is freely available for use with Linux, Mac, and Windows computers.
Scholars like Prof. Chris Klingenberg and their projects like the Klingenberg Lab play a critical role in the advancement of humanity. The professor has morphometric publications that look into everything from what makes the dog’s nose that long to using software for geometric morphometrics, which have a large bearing on evolutionary biology studies. We can never underestimate his contribution to universities in UK and all over the world. It is such brilliant minds and investigative projects that do the UK brand of universities proud!
