Sandra Breum Andersen

Sandra Breum Andersen is an Associate Professor at the Section for Hologenomics within the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen. Her work bridges evolutionary biology and clinical microbiology, focusing on the emerging field of Evolutionary Medicine. She investigates microbial social interactions within and among species, and between microbes and their hosts, with the ultimate goal of predicting and manipulating microbial effects on host fitness.

Her educational background includes a BSc, MSc (2008), and PhD (2012) in biology, all from the University of Copenhagen. Her research journey has taken her to fieldwork locations across Australia, Thailand, Panama, Brazil, and the US. She completed postdoctoral research between the University of Oxford and the Technical University of Denmark, and another between New York University and the Faculty of Health at the University of Copenhagen.

Dr. Andersen's research interests center on applying Social Evolution theory to understand microbial dynamics in human health. Her work examines competition, cooperation, and cheating among microbes using in vitro and in vivo growth experiments, microscopy, and bioinformatics. She investigates how changes in microbiome composition—due to factors like antibiotic overuse and processed food diets—affect human health. Her research has significant implications for understanding and treating conditions related to microbiome disruptions.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on host-microbe interactions, with particular attention to Helicobacter pylori, antibiotic resistance evolution, and hologenomic approaches to understanding complex microbiome systems. Her work spans multiple disciplines, connecting evolutionary theory with clinical applications, and has appeared in high-impact journals including Science, Nature Reviews Genetics, and BMC Medicine.

Dr. Andersen has received prestigious funding through a Sapere Aude grant and a Lundbeck Fonden Fellowship. Her research has garnered significant attention, with publications receiving numerous citations and downloads across academic platforms.

She is actively engaged in the scientific community as an invited speaker at events like Vin & Videnskab and Club EvMed, and as an organizer of conferences including the Gordon Research Seminar on Animal-Microbe Symbioses and Microbial Darwinian Medicine. Her media presence includes interviews on Kulturen (P1), podcasts on Videnskab.dk, and features in Evolutionary Medicine articles.