Guillaume Meric

I am a senior lecturer (associate professor) and group leader in clinical microbiology, microbial (meta)genomics and bioinformatics and systems biology. I work at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Bath (UK) and hold a clinical affiliate appointment at the Cambridge-Baker Systems Genomics Initiative, a joint research program between the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute in Melbourne (Australia) and the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge (UK). My other honorary appointments include Uppsala University (Sweden) and other Australian universities (University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and Monash University).

My research interests focus on the bioinformatic and computational analysis of large-scale human population cohort datasets that include a microbial component, typically metagenomic sequences from the gut or other body sites.

In my group, we address a range of clinical, biological and ecological questions on host-microbe association, interaction and function as well as the influence of microbes (commensals or pathogens) and the gut microbiota on health and disease, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, liver diseases and others.

Our scientific interests are generalist and fundamental at heart, but a few topics are of particular interest, such as:
(1) the ecology of bacterial pathogens (foodborne, zoonotic, nosocomial) in the healthy human gut and their association with non-communicable diseases;
(2) the genetic basis of pathogenic variation and association with human or animal disease;
(3) the effects of antibiotic and non-antibiotic medication on the gut microbiome and gut resistome dynamics;
(4) the exploration of links between the gut microbiota and host genetics, diet, disease risk and progression, within the framework of precision medicine and microbiome modulation;
(5) the human gut archaeome and links with human lifestyle and health.