Leibniz-HKI - Microbiome Dynamics Department

What do you study in your doctoral project?

I study patients with different cancer types, including pancreatic, lung, and colorectal cancer, to identify bacteria that are linked to how severe cachexia becomes. I also compare these cancers to see whether they share similar microbial patterns or have their own unique signatures. I also analyze chemical signals in the blood to understand how the body’s metabolism changes during cachexia and how these changes relate to muscle loss.

How do you study this?

I approach this project using bioinformatics, which means applying statistical and computational methods to analyze large datasets. These include information about microbial species and genes in the gut, metabolites in the blood, and clinical patient data.

Another key part of my research is building computer models that help predict who may be at risk of developing cachexia and how the condition might progress.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

The long-term goal is to identify microbial markers and potential treatment targets that could support the development of future microbiome-based strategies for cancer patients. Furthermore, the machine-learning tools I develop here may be used in the medical sector, helping doctors predict the disease more accurately and in a more understandable way.

German cancer research center (DKFZ) - Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research

What do you study in your doctoral project?

I study colorectal cancer patients, which is the third most common cancer worldwide. Cachexia is very common in these patients. My project investigates the relationship between the gut microbiota and cachexia to better understand how changes in the microbiome are linked to cachexia and patients’ quality of life.

How do you study this?

My host research group has been collecting data from colorectal cancer patients undergoing rehabilitation in several centers across Germany for more than 10 years. Patients who participate provide blood and stool samples and answer questionnaires about fatigue, depression, quality of life, and overall well-being. This study provides valuable data that help us analyze how the gut microbiome is linked to cachexia and patients’ quality of life.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

Ultimately, this research aims to support the development of more personalized care strategies that integrate not only tumor-directed treatments but also the patient’s overall health and well-being.

Leibniz-HKI - Microbiome Dynamics Department

What do you study in your doctoral project?

My PhD project investigates whether changes in the gut microbiome of lung cancer patients are linked to the development of cachexia. The goal is to identify specific microbial patterns that may be associated with this condition.

How do you study this?

We collaborate with a hospital in Hungary, where lung cancer patients receiving routine treatment are invited to participate in our study. We follow these patients over time—up to 18 months—to observe how their condition changes.

Participants provide stool samples to study the gut microbiome and blood samples to analyze metabolism and immune responses. We can also measure changes in muscle and fat by analyzing CT scans taken during their treatment.

As a bioinformatician, I bring together these different types of data and apply advanced computational methods to look for patterns that may explain how the microbiome is linked to cachexia.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

In the long term, this research may help improve early diagnosis and open new possibilities for treatment, ultimately supporting better outcomes for patients.

Biological Research Centre (BRC) - Institute of Biochemistry, Division of Molecular Biology

What do you study in your doctoral project?

Scientists are discovering that certain gut bacteria can influence inflammation, metabolism, and immune responses throughout the body. In my project, I investigate how these bacteria and the molecules they produce may contribute to cancer cachexia, particularly by affecting muscle and fat tissues and influencing inflammation and metabolism in the body.

How do you study this?

In my project, I work with cells grown in the lab that mimic some key features of cancer cachexia. These models allow us to carefully control the conditions and study what happens when specific bacteria or the substances they produce interact with muscle and fat cells. This helps us understand whether certain microbes can directly or indirectly influence the processes behind cachexia.

I also work closely with DC3 and our clinical partners at a hospital in Hungary. By analyzing samples from cancer patients in this study, I can see whether the changes we observe in the lab also occur in real patients.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

By identifying bacterial signals that worsen or protect against cachexia, this project aims to improve our understanding of disease mechanisms, biomarkers for early diagnosis and support the development of future microbiome or nutrition-based strategies to better manage cancer cachexia.

Technical University of Denmark (DTU) - The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability

What do you study in your doctoral project?

My project explores whether the gut microbiome could become part of the solution to the severe effects of cancer cachexia. The gut microbiome produces many molecules that can influence inflammation, metabolism, and the protective lining of the gut. In cachexia, this microbial community often becomes unbalanced and some helpful bacteria become less abundant. My work focuses on developing next-generation probiotics that could restore these missing functions by increasing the production of beneficial molecules.

How do you study this?

In my project, I use bioengineering to work with beneficial gut bacteria. This means studying how these microbes produce helpful molecules and learning how to improve or redesign them so they can produce larger amounts of these compounds.

The goal is to develop bacteria that can support gut health and help reduce harmful inflammation in patients with cancer cachexia.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

The long-term goal is to develop microbiome-based therapies that help the body better cope with cancer and slow down the wasting process caused by cachexia.

Leibniz-HKI - Microbiome Dynamics Department

What do you study in your doctoral project?

My project uses computer models to help design beneficial bacteria that can produce molecules to help fight cancer cachexia.

How do you study this?

I build detailed computer models that simulate how bacteria use nutrients and produce different molecules. These models allow us to predict how microbes behave in the gut of patients with cancer cachexia.

I also simulate how different bacterial species interact with each other. By modelling pairs of bacteria in a virtual gut environment, we can study whether they support each other or compete for nutrients.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

These models help us predict how to encourage beneficial bacteria to grow and produce helpful molecules. In the long term, this knowledge can help design improved bacterial therapies to ease the effects of cancer cachexia.

Technical University of Denmark (DTU) -The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability

What do you study in your doctoral project?

I study what happens in the gut during cancer cachexia and how these changes may contribute to the disease. In particular, I investigate how specific gut bacteria may affect the gut barrier, the protective layer that separates the gut from the rest of the body, and how this may influence inflammation.

How do you study this?

To study these processes, we first need to recreate the conditions of cancer cachexia in the laboratory. I work on developing and characterizing mouse models as well as cells grown in the lab that mimic key features of the disease.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

These models allow me to test new treatments, including helpful microbes and other compounds, with the aim of finding better ways to support people living with cancer.

University College Cork (UCC) -Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience

What do you study in your doctoral project?

One of the key aspects of cancer cachexia is loss of appetite. Patients lose weight and muscle even when they receive enough nutrition, and there are currently very few treatment options.

My project explores new therapies based on plant-derived compounds called polyphenols and beneficial bacteria that naturally live in our digestive system.

How do you study this?

To investigate this, we use mouse models of cancer cachexia that mimic many aspects of the condition seen in patients. These models allow us to test whether these compounds and beneficial bacteria can improve appetite, metabolism, behavior, and disease progression and survival.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

The goal of this project is to identify new safe, impactful, economical, and accessible therapy that could improve the lives of patients suffering from this devastating condition.

University College Cork (UCC) - Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience

What do you study in your doctoral project?

You may have noticed that skipping sleep or eating at unusual hours can make you feel out of balance. This happens because our bodies follow a daily rhythm, known as the circadian clock, which helps regulate processes such as metabolism and immune function.

In cancer cachexia, this natural timing system often goes out of sync. My project investigates how changes in circadian rhythms may contribute to cachexia, and whether the gut microbiota could help restore this balance.

How do you study this?

The circadian clock also functions in individual cells, including nerve, muscle, and fat cells. I use these cell systems to study how molecules produced during cancer cachexia may disrupt the circadian clock. I also test whether specific bacteria can help restore its normal function.

Once we observe promising results in these cell studies, I then investigate the same bacteria in mouse models to see whether they can help improve circadian rhythms and reduce the effects of cachexia.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

I hope to find out whether microbial interventions could one day support the circadian health of cancer patients and ease the burden of cachexia.

Amsterdam University Medical Centre (AUMC) - Department of Vascular Medicine and Diabetes

What do you study in your doctoral project?

In an earlier study, gastroesophageal cancer patients received a treatment that transfers gut bacteria from a healthy donor to the patient’s gut. Some of these patients showed signs of improved survival, and their gut microbiome changed over time compared with patients who received their own bacteria back.

In my project, I investigate whether these changes in the gut microbiome could explain the better outcomes observed in these patients.

How do you study this?

As a bioinformatician, I analyse large datasets from cancer patients using computational and statistical methods. This includes information about gut bacteria from stool samples, molecules measured in the blood, and clinical data from patients.

I also analyse data from larger groups of patients to develop models that may help predict cancer and cachexia based on information from gut bacteria in stool samples and small molecules measured in the blood.

What is the long-term goal of your study?

My work aims to identify specific gut bacteria and blood molecules that are linked to improvements in cachexia after microbiome transfer treatment.

I work closely with DC12 to further explore these findings and investigate whether these bacteria or molecules could be used to develop more precise microbiome-based therapies for cancer patients.

Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC) -Department of Vascular Medicine and Diabetes

What do you study in your doctoral project?

Emerging research suggests that the gut microbiome may send “messages” that influence how muscles use energy and respond to disease. In my PhD project, I investigate whether altering the gut microbiome using capsules containing beneficial bacteria from healthy lean donors (a so-called “fecal microbiota transplantation”) can help reduce muscle and weight loss in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

How do you study this?

As a medical doctor by training, my main doctoral project is a clinical trial testing microbiome transplantation as a potential treatment for cachexia in patients with gastroesophageal cancer. I focus on studying the clinical effects of this treatment on weight and muscle loss, quality of life and survival. At the same time, I investigate the effects of this treatment on a molecular level in muscle biopsies to better understand how these changes may affect muscle health and metabolism.