Nordic summer school brought leading microbiome researchers to Tartu

From 26 to 28 August, the University of Tartu hosted the 2nd Nordic Summer School on Computational Microbiome Research. The biennial event brought together 50 people from 11 countries. Speakers included some of the world’s foremost microbiome researchers, among them Rob Knight, Jeroen Raes and Jingyuan Fu.

The programme focused on how computational methods can address the methodological challenges of the microbiome field and how novel tools can be used to better understand the function and role of the microbiome in human health. Its interactive format gave participants the opportunity not only to hear from researchers shaping the field, but also to discuss their own work with them one-to-one and receive direct feedback.

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“Estonia’s microbiome research community is small, but its work is increasingly visible internationally. Hosting a summer school with speakers of this calibre reflects the standing that the University of Tartu has built in the field,” said Elin Org, professor of microbiomics at the University of Tartu.

Rob Knight (University of California San Diego) explored how computational models could improve the prediction and detection of complex diseases and discussed the limitations of the current data infrastructure. Jeroen Raes (KU Leuven) presented data-driven insights into the dynamics of the healthy gut microbiome. Jingyuan Fu (University Medical Center Groningen) introduced a high-resolution approach for analysing the microbial function and genomic variation. Harri Lähdesmäki (Aalto University) discussed longitudinal generative models for microbiome research. Ilze Elbere (Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre) showed how microbial functions can be linked to population characteristics and proposed next steps for the personalisation of microbiome research

Participants were also introduced to the Estonian Biobank, its sample collections and Estonia’s microbiome cohort. These resources allow University of Tartu researchers to combine microbiome data with genetic and long-term health data.

The 2nd Nordic Summer School on Computational Microbiome Research was held in conjunction with the 25th International Gene Forum. It was supported by the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation and the project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies”, co-funded by the European Union.

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