Clinical bioinformatician and researcher into the microbiome.
I hold a PhD in Bioinformatics from Kiel University, Germany, and a master’s and bachelor’s degree in Molecular Medicine from Aarhus University. My work focuses on translational microbiome research, spanning project design, data generation, and data analysis. I have worked with a diverse range of disease- and microbiome-related questions, including PSC, diabetes, obesity, respiratory diseases, and arthritis, as well as microbial speciation and microbiome–drug interactions.
My research focuses on the interaction between the human body, treatment, and the microbiome. We know that the gut microbiome affects how patients respond to many types of treatment. But how can we make this knowledge clinically valuable and applicable? We use clinical data and cohorts to identify the specific microbial enzymes responsible for these interactions. Not the microorganism, but the enzyme(s). Thus, my research focuses on the functional capacity of the microbiome.
Most of my research time currently focuses on projects related to a) rheumatoid arthritis and methotrexate, and b) fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), depression, and GABA.
I have the pleasure of managing a team of clinical bioinformaticians who form part of the MOMA Core and support research projects involving microbiome-related questions. This gives me the opportunity to engage in a diverse range of tasks, from bioinformatic pipeline development to the interpretation of microbiome data in a clinical context. Furthermore, I am establishing my own research group focusing on the role of the human microbiome in variation in patients’ responses to treatment.
