ABOUT US
A Two Institutional Research Group
With an official launch in 2011, EZ lab consolidated the research group of Dr. Matjaž Kuntner founded in 2005 at the Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). Today, EZ lab is a two-institutional research group with three lab venues and two principle investigators. Dr. Kuntner leads the branch at the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana focusing on Phylogenetic Systematics and Biogeography. At the Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology ZRC SAZU, Dr. Matjaž Gregorič leads the lab in the recently established EZ branch in Maribor that conducts research on Spider Silk and Web Evolution, while other ZRC SAZU labs are at Ig near Ljubljana. Dr. Simona Kralj Fišer led the Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology lab within EZlab from 2018 to 2026 and today continues as an independent collaborator (lab info). These topics are broadly to overlapping, and the two-pronged group thrives on common findings. In synergy, EZ lab conducts training of the next generation of scientists. Our PIs and their students are affiliated with several universities and institutes in Slovenia, China, USA, and UK.
Facilities
Phylogenetic Systematics and Biogeography is chiefly done at the National Institute of Biology’s Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research at Večna pot 111 in Ljubljana. These labs are equipped for targeted field work, microscopic data acquisition, RNA and DNA extraction, high throughput sequencing, transcriptome assembly, qPCR analyses, bioinformatics analyses, phylogenomic analyses, biogeographic analyses, and machine learning data analysis. It builds on the other strengths of the Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research whose staff are active in biotremology, organismal and ecosystem ecology, and physiology.
Spider Silk and Web Evolution is being conducted at the new biological labs in Maribor that form a part of the ZRC SAZU Maribor Research Station, within the Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology. This EZ extension is equipped for targeted field work, microscopic data acquisition including morphological imaging, and its focus on spider silk is enabled by a newly installed tensile testing machine. Other facilities of the Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology are located at Ig (Research Station Barje). The labs at Ig are equipped for targeted field work, microscopic data acquisition including morphological imaging, RNA and DNA extraction and amplification, and the top of the line behavioral labs are fully loaded for animal rearing (in lab controlled and greenhouse climatic conditions, as well as climate chambers), observation, and manipulation, with still and video cameras and behavioral observation software.