Since January 2017, the writing of the (nearly) daily Microbiome Digest blog posts has been done by a fantastic team of scientists from all over the world, who all share their love of microbiology and science communication here. Here, they introduce themselves.
Updated: November 2025
Bugembe Allan
Bugembe Allan is a Food Science & Human Nutrition graduate, with hands-on quality control experience from different companies. He is interested in food microbiology, fermentation, nutrition, and communicating microbiome science to both researchers and practitioners.
Juan Pablo Cardenas
JP is currently an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Mayor in Santiago, Chile. Before that, he did his PhD at the Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago and he worked at uBiome. He is interested in bioinformatics, phylogenomics, and microbial ecology.
Juan Pablo’s profile on Research Gate
Twitter: @jpca_chile
Posts by Juan Pablo Cardenas
Nkiruka Cynthia Efenji
Nkiruka Cynthia Efenji is a clinical researcher at Federal Teaching Hospital Lokoja, Nigeria. I obtained a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Lagos and MSc in Microbiology from Ahmadu Bello University. I am currently seeking PhD programs that will allow me to combine my interests in microbiology and bioinformatics. I am excited to contribute to the growing field of microbiome science and its applications in One Health.
Axel Künstner
Axel Künstner has a background in computer sciences and evolutionary genomics. He worked on a couple of genome projects in the past and focused mainly on bird genomics during his PhD. During the last years, he collaborated on several microbiome projects (e.g. in a multiple sclerosis mouse model and dogs suffering from atopic dermatitis). Additionally, he has been trying to transfer his enthusiasm about the microbiome to students while teaching them about the topic. He’s still following the field very actively despite shifting his projects slightly away from pure microbiome research towards cancer genomics.
Joel Muwanika
Joel Muwanika is a multifaceted professional with expertise in food science, nursing, and human nutrition. With a passion for microbiology, I have collaborated with national and local organizations to advance understanding of the intricate relationships between microorganisms, health, and nutrition. Driven by curiosity and enthusiasm, I continue to learn and grow in human and food microbiology, microbiome science, and science communication. My goal is to contribute meaningfully to the field, promoting optimal health through innovative applications of microbiome science.
Alise Ponsero
Alise is a microbiologist and a bioinformatician who received her PhD in microbiology and cellular biology from the University of Paris-Saclay (France). She also holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Rennes (France). She is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona (USA). Her research focuses on the development of new bioinformatic tools to analyze metagenomics datasets, and the development of cyberinfrastructures for microbiologists.
Twitter: @APonsero
Website: http://aliseponsero.fr/
Feargal Ryan
My background is BSc. in Microbiology, MSc. in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. I completed my PhD in APC Microbiome institute in Ireland where I worked on the microbiome in IBD. After that I worked as a post doc in the gut virome area with Colin Hills group in Cork, Ireland. Currently I’m working as a post doc in an EMBL Australia group in the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.
Grace Deitzler
Grace Deitzler is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, where she is studying the role of the gut microbiome in pediatric intestinal diseases. She earned her PhD at Oregon State University where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and studied the relationship between the gut microbiome and host health and behavior in honey bees, and in a mouse model of autism. Grace is also passionate about science communication and education, and volunteers with Skype a Scientist.
Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic
Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic is a microbiome scientist at University of Trento (Italy). Svetlana gained wet-lab and dry-lab experience at University of Glasgow (UK), University of Porto (Portugal) and Fudan University (China). Svetlana is a strong supporter of open science and open source initiatives, such as Microbiome Virtual International Forum, NSURP, Outreachy, BugSigDB and curatedMetagenomicData.
Twitter: @svetlana_up
Posts by Svetlana Ugarcina Perovic
Past members:
- Richard Abdill – 14 posts (March 2020 – May 2021)
- Korin Albert – 19 posts
- Alexandra Alexiev – 36 posts (January 2017 – October 2018)
- Tulika Arora – 52 posts (July 2018 – May 2021)
- Cary R Allen-Blevins – 5 posts
- Harithaa Anandakumar – 2 posts
- Medini Annavajhala – 1 post
- Karen Barnacle – 2 posts
- Sara Barnett Burns – 29 posts (January 2017 – October 2018)
- Jennifer Barrell – 4 posts
- Maureen Berg – 15 posts
- Barak Dror – 20 posts (April 2019 – November 2020)
- Arti Dumbrepatil – 10 posts
- Kristen Farley – 2 posts
- Andrew Forgie – 1 post
- Jose Gracia – 4 posts
- Peter Graystock – 18 posts
- Kiran Gurung – 76 posts (January 2017 – March 2022)
- Zehra Tüzün Güvener – 14 posts
- Tiffany Hsu – 39 posts (January 2017 – March 2018)
- Xin Huang – 80 posts (January 2017 – March 2020)
- Aleksi Husso – 9 posts (May 2020 – May 2021)
- Anitha Isaiah – 20 posts (January 2016 – May 2019)
- Amy Jacobson – 65 posts (January 2017 – May 2019)
- Jenni Leota – 4 posts
- Alyaa Mahmoud – 4 posts
- Ojasvi Mehta – 7 posts
- Galit Meshulam-Simon – 7 posts
- Edward Messick – 22 posts (February 2017 – February 2019)
- Shirin Moossavi – 7 posts (March 2020 – February 2021)
- Itumeleng Moroenyane – 44 posts (January 2017 – May 2019)
- Ryan Kaien Nah – 4 posts
- Quang P. Nguyen – 2 posts
- James O’Brien – 11 posts (April 2020 – July 2021)
- Hugo Pantigoso – 12 posts
- Ariane Panzer – 12 posts (April 2020 – February 2022)
- Ian Parsons – 2 posts
- Swathi Penumutchu – 8 posts
- Div Prasad – 1 post
- Mohammed Nabil Quraishi – 4 posts
- James Robson – 5 posts
- Puck de Roos – 2 posts
- Vinícius Salazar – 12 posts
- Mike Sansano – 7 posts
- Ashok Kumar Sharma – 38 posts (June 2018 – March 2022)
- Atin Sharma – 19 posts (April 2020 – August 2022)
- Tina Šilović – 44 posts (January 2017 – August 2018)
- Varun Sridhar – 3 posts
- Mason Stothart – 7 posts
- Arielle Strzelewicz – 1 post
- Diana Taft – 6 posts
- Kara Ann Tinker – 51 posts (April 2020 – June 2023)
- Judith S Weber – 5 posts
- Garrett Wilson – 3 posts
- Kent Willis – 1 post (March 2021)
- Samantha Wooley – 1 post
- Alyson Yee – 20 posts (June 2018 – September 2019)
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