Mireia Vallès-Colomer
Lead
researcher of the Microbiome Research Group at the Department of Medicine and
Life Sciences at the UPF
Location
Barcelona
Description
She graduated
in Biotechnology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and discovered her
passion for the microbiome while studying for a Master’s in Biomolecular
Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), where she took a course
in bioinformatics applied to the microbiome.
During her PhD at VIB-KU Leuven (Belgium), she studied the relationship between the gut microbiome and mental health, and developed bioinformatics tools to analyse the production of neuroactive molecules such as serotonin and dopamine. This work allowed for the first population-level study on the microbiome and mental health.
She later carried out her postdoctoral research in Nicola Segata’s laboratory (Università di Trento, Italy), with a fellowship from the ”la Caixa” Foundation that enabled her to deepen the study of microbiome transmission among people who cohabit. This research has helped increase the resolution of studies down to the strain level and has opened up new avenues in the field of computational microbiology.
Now, as head of the Microbiome Research Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Vallès brings together the two main strands of her research: microbiome transmission and its connection to mental health. She is launching projects to study how the gut microbiome is transmitted among individuals with conditions linked to microbiome imbalances, and to analyse these disorders using high-resolution techniques.
During her PhD at VIB-KU Leuven (Belgium), she studied the relationship between the gut microbiome and mental health, and developed bioinformatics tools to analyse the production of neuroactive molecules such as serotonin and dopamine. This work allowed for the first population-level study on the microbiome and mental health.
She later carried out her postdoctoral research in Nicola Segata’s laboratory (Università di Trento, Italy), with a fellowship from the ”la Caixa” Foundation that enabled her to deepen the study of microbiome transmission among people who cohabit. This research has helped increase the resolution of studies down to the strain level and has opened up new avenues in the field of computational microbiology.
Now, as head of the Microbiome Research Group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Vallès brings together the two main strands of her research: microbiome transmission and its connection to mental health. She is launching projects to study how the gut microbiome is transmitted among individuals with conditions linked to microbiome imbalances, and to analyse these disorders using high-resolution techniques.