Sabina Leanti La Rosa

Sabina Leanti La Rosa is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). She received her PhD in 2014 from NMBU, completed postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston investigating enterococcal pathogenicity, and worked with Assoc. Prof. Bjørge Westereng on beta-mannan degradation before joining Prof. Phil B. Pope's Microbial Ecology and Meta-omics group in 2018. She was appointed Associate Professor at NMBU in 2022.

Dr. La Rosa's research program focuses on gut microbiome dynamics with three main thrusts:

• Investigating how diet- and wood-derived carbohydrates modulate gut microbiota composition and metabolic output across humans, farm animals, and fish
• Applying multi-omic tools to decipher mechanistic connections between diet, host, and microbiome
• Elucidating mechanisms of gut bacterial breakdown of food additives and human milk oligosaccharides

Her publication record demonstrates significant expertise in fish microbiomes, xanthan gum metabolism, and carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), with articles in Nature Microbiology, Nature Communications, PNAS, and other high-impact journals. Recent work shows increasing focus on sustainable aquaculture applications and designer fibers for microbiome manipulation.

Dr. La Rosa has received recognition as a Fellow of NMBU's Research Talent 2021-2022 program. She is an active scientific communicator, regularly presenting at international conferences including ISME, CBM, and specialized microbiome symposia across Europe and Africa.

As an educator, she is responsible for the course BIO341 Pathogenic Microorganisms and serves as a guest lecturer for courses on Applied Biocatalysis and Biorefining and Genome Sequencing.