What are the closest relatives of humans? What is the common origin of multicellular life? What is the source of disease-causing germs that can lead to devastating epidemics? Since the beginnings of modern research into evolution, questions as to the origin of organisms and their ancestor–descendent relationships have played a central role in the field of biology. However, most methods of analysis used have not been developed further for decades – unlike, for example, the genetic and molecular investigation techniques, which have been refined on an ongoing basis. The Genomic Microbiology working group at the Institute of General Microbiology at Kiel University (CAU) has now developed a new procedure which could revolutionise evolutionary biological research, and answer key questions in the history of how life developed. The CAU researchers Fernando Tria and Dr. Giddy Landan describe their universally-applicable bioinformatic method for the analysis of evolutionary lineage and ancestor–descendent relationships in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.