Bärbel Stecher is a microbiologist fascinated by the enormous complexity and functional flexibility of the mammalian microbiota.

Her academic training started at LMU Munich where she studied microbiology, immunology and genetics. For her PhD, she moved to the ETH Zürich, Switzerland where she focused on Salmonella pathogenesis. Her academic career included positions at the ETH Zürich and the McMaster University, Canada.

Since 2010 she is leading an independent lab at the Max von Pettenkofer-Institute in Munich, and since 2016 she holds an Associate Professorship (tenured W2). The central focus of her lab is on the gastrointestinal microbiome with a specific interest in molecular microbiology, microbial ecology and microbe-host interactions in infectious diseases.

Adapted from https://www.mvp.uni-muenchen.de/microbiology/ag-stecher/

stecher@mvp.lmu.de

Camille Goemans is a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Nassos Typas at the EMBL.

She obtained her PhD from the lab of Jean-François Collet (de Duve Institute, UCLouvain, Belgium) in 2018, where she focused on elucidating bacterial responses to oxidative stress. For her postdoc, she joined Nassos Typas' lab at EMBL, where she is studying the impact of drugs on the human gut microbiota.

From September 2023, Camille will start her research group at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland) where she will combine systems and molecular microbiology to further understand how drugs impact gut microbes.

camille.goemans@embl.de

https://www.embl.org/people/person/camille-goemans/

Dr. Carles Ubeda did his doctoral thesis in the area of microbiology under the direction of Dr. José Penadés at UCH-Valencia. Subsequently, he completed two postdoctoral stays at New York University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Center (New York) under the direction of Dr. Richard Novick and Dr. Eric Pamer.

Since 2012, he leads the research group "Microbiota, Infection and Inflammation" of the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research (Valencia, Spain). His studies focus on understanding how the intestinal microbiota confers protection against bacterial infections. His research has identified changes in the gut microbiota that promote infection, key microbiota bacteria that protect against the pathogen and mechanisms by which they confer protection. In addition, his group has demonstrated the impact of the microbiota on the development of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

His research has resulted in a total of 51 articles in PubMed indexed journals, with 21 articles as lead author in highly relevant journals such as J. Exp. Med., J. Clin. Invest., PNAS and Nat. Comm. among others. He has been selected in the last two years as a highly cited researcher in "all fields" by Clarivate. In addition, Dr. Ubeda has contributed with 2 patents and has served as coordinator of a European project of the "Seventh Research Framework Program”.

https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Carles-Ubeda-14878180

ubeda_carmor@gva.es