About
Karoline Faust is an Associate Professor at KU Leuven, affiliated with the Laboratory of Molecular Bacteriology (Rega Institute) and the Faculty of Medicine. She contributes to the iSi Health and Leuven One Health institutes, and serves on senior academic councils. Her research spans microbial systems biology, focusing on community dynamics and network analysis.
- Education: PhD in bioinformatics (2010, KU Leuven)
- Affiliations: KU Leuven, ISME Journal editorial board, Belgian Society for Microbiology
Her research investigates microbial community dynamics, systems biology approaches to microbiomes, and bioinformatics tool development. She specializes in modeling human gut microbiota, synthetic microbial communities, and environmental microbiomes (e.g., microplastic impacts on Daphnia microbiomes). Her work integrates metabolic modeling, network analysis, and experimental systems to understand microbial interactions.
Recent publications highlight her contributions to microbial network inference, 16S rRNA sequencing protocols, microfluidics, and ecological modeling of microbiomes. She develops tools like manta, miaSim, and CoNet to analyze community structures.
Teaching: Karoline co-teaches courses in microbiology, bioinformatics, and network analysis at KU Leuven, and has contributed to international workshops on microbial network inference.
Scientific Engagement: She serves as Senior Editor at ISME Journal and Secretary of the Belgian Society for Microbiology.
