Since 1 January 2016 Dr. Michael Kube assumes the succession of Irmtraut Zaspel, in the research area ‘Resistance Research’ who retired in March 2015. From March onward, Mr. Kube will also be the head of the affiliate of the institute located at Waldsieversdorf. Dr. rer. nat. Michael Kube first studied biology and geography at the Technical University of Berlin; followed by his doctorate at the University of Bremen on the genome of the bacterium Rhodopirellula baltica. In numerous international and national projects he increased the knowledge on molecular biology and microbiology at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and then aimed his research to phytopathogenic microorganisms at the Humboldt University of Berlin at the Department of Phytomedicine. Stringent identification and analysis of (meta-) genomes and transcriptomes proved successful in improving the diagnosis of pathogens, to reconstruct their phylogeny, to discover new metabolic pathways, and to publish successfully insights into the pathogen-host interactions.