Microbiome Data Analysis Workshop 2025

Olivier Thas is a professor of biostatistics with a strong background in nonparametric statistics, genomics, and high-throughput technologies. He is currently affiliated with Hasselt University at the Data Science Institute, where his work focuses on statistical methods applied to life sciences, including microbiome studies and proteomics. He has authored more than 120 scientific papers and two monographs. In addition to his role at Hasselt University, Thas is also a guest professor at Ghent University and an honorary professor at the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia. His research spans various projects in biostatistics, including statistical decision-making and microbiome research, with notable involvement in international collaborations.​

Ziv Shkedy is a leading expert and a professor in biostatistics and data science at Hasselt University's CenStat and the Data Science Institute. His research interests span statistical modelling, survival analysis, and clinical trials, with a strong focus on biomarker development. Ziv is also the founder of the eR-Biostat initiative, which provides open-access educational materials for learning R, specifically designed for students and professionals globally, including those in developing countries. He is recognized for his contributions to advancing statistical methods in life sciences and his commitment to accessible education in data science.

Stijn Wittouck is a postdoctoral researcher  in the Department of Bioscience Engineering at the University of Antwerp, where he focuses on the ecology and evolution of lactic acid bacteria by comparative studies of their genome sequences. He develops software to gain new types of insights from such datasets, or to process them on a larger scale. He applies these and existing bioinformatic tools to study how different species of lactic acid bacteria are related to each other, how they adapt to different lifestyles (e.g. free-living vs host-adapted) and how they interact with their viruses and other mobile genetic elements.

Thies Gehrmann is a senior researcher at the University of Antwerp in the Department of Bioscience Engineering. His work focuses on bioinformatics and statistical analysis within microbiome studies, including the Isala project, which aims to understand the human vaginal microbiome. Gehrmann's background in computer science and statistics, with prior applications to fungal and human genetics and transcriptomics, makes him a valuable contributor to analyzing the diverse data collected in such microbiome research.

Leo Lahti is professor in Data Science at the University of Turku, Finland. His research team focuses on computational analysis and modeling of complex natural and social systems. Lahti obtained doctoral degree (DSc) from Aalto University in Finland (2010), developing probabilistic machine learning methods for high-throughput life science data integration. This was followed by subsequent postdoctoral research at EBI/Hinxton (UK), Wageningen University (NL), and VIB/KU Leuven (BE). Lahti has coordinated international networks in data science methods and applications and organizes international data science training events on a regular basis. He is vice chair for the national coordination on open science Finland, executive committee member for the International Science Council Committee on Data (2023-2025), member of the global Bioconductor Community Advisory Board, and founder of the open science work group of Open Knowledge Finland ry.

Laura Symul is an Assistant Professor of non-clinical biostatistics at UCLouvain's Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics, and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA). Her research focuses on developing statistical methods for women's health, with a particular emphasis on menstrual health, fertility, cycle-related symptoms, and the vaginal microbiome. She utilizes both parametric and non-parametric models to analyze a variety of data, including clinical, self-tracked (from apps), and publicly available datasets. Before joining UCLouvain, Laura was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, where she began her work in this field. She earned her Ph.D. in computational biology from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

Ksenia Guseva is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna, working in the Division of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research at the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science. Her research focuses on microbial ecology, particularly in soil environments, where she uses modelling and nonlinear dynamics to understand microbial interactions and ecosystem processes. She is involved in projects related to the construction of co-occurrence networks and enzyme production trade-offs during depolymerization.

George Zeller is an Associate Professor at the Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID) at LUMC. His research aims to better understand human microbiomes and their impact on health and disease. Exploring if non-invasive detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) is feasible from gut microbiome profiles, my group established an accurate classification model through large-scale machine learning meta-analyses. Ongoing work assesses the prognostic potential of this CRC classifier. To elucidate bacterial carcinogenesis mechanisms, the group investigates intratumoral microbes using multi-omics approaches, bacterial imaging and cellular infection models supported by an ERC Synergy grant. Beyond cancer, Georg is interested in more general delineation of healthy versus diseased gut microbiomes (dysbiosis) across many disorders. For developing a quantitative model of dysbiosis he received an LUMC Fellowship. Ultimately my work will underpin the development of novel microbiome-targeting diagnostic, prognostics and therapeutic approaches to maintain health, prevent disease and improve treatment.