Earlier this year Ilia Solov'yov applied to become a PI in the SFB 1372 project and recently it got funded. The approved project has the discription:
"To achieve a comprehensive understanding of magnetoreception and vertebrate navigation, it is important to reveal the fundamental processes that make magnetic sensing robust. In this project we will elucidate unique structural and dynamical traits in cryptochrome 4 from the night-migrating European robin that make it stand out from other members of the multigene family. Specifically, investigations will focus on (i) computational reconstruction of atomistic models of the wild type protein and key diagnostic mutants; (ii) revealing the evolutionary hotspots that have the potential to either boost or destroy the magnetic field sensitivity of European robin cryptochrome 4; (iii) systematic identification and description of intramolecular motions in various cryptochrome mutants, differently affecting radical pair spin dynamics. "