Sara Vieira-Silva is an Associate Professor at the IMMH, University Medical Center, JGU Mainz and Adjunct Director at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Mainz. Initially trained in biology (University of Lisbon, Portugal) and computational biology (PDBC, IGC, Portugal), she conducted a PhD thesis in microbial evolutionary genomics (UPMC), supervised by Eduardo Rocha at Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. As a postdoctoral scientist (VIB / KU Leuven), she specialized in studying microbial metabolism specific to the human gut environment and its clinical impact on the human host; embracing and developing state-of-the art computational approaches to study these microbial communities. The Vieira-Silva lab explores the ecology of host-associated microbial communities and their role in health and disease. Our research focuses on understanding the ecological dynamics of human gut-associated microbial communities in healthy host-microbiome homeostasis and how their disturbance contributes to the risk of disease onset or progression. We apply quantitative approaches to population cohort studies and intervention trials to identify the mechanisms that drive the dynamics of the gut ecosystem in health, the determinants of its resilience to perturbations and the alterations that contribute to disease (dysbiosis). We base our research on dataset generated by hypothesis-driven experimental design, and invest in the continuous development of bioinformatic tools to extract interpretable traits from metagenomic data as well as computational approaches to quantify ecological dynamics and host-microbiome interactions. In close collaboration with clinical experts or whithin large multidisciplinary research efforts, we are engaged in dissecting the contribution of microbiomes to pathophysiology, with the aim of refining personalized therapeutic approaches for inflammatory, metabolic and neuropsychiatric disorders.