Prof. Dr. Lisa Maier

Lisa Maier (b. 1984) graduated in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen and received her PhD from the Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2014. From 2015 to 2018, she conducted postdoctoral research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Since 2019, she leads the junior research group "Drug-Microbiome-Host-Interactions" at the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene of the Medical Faculty Tübingen, which is supported by the Emmy-Noether Program of the DFG, among others. As of April 2022, the junior research group now grows into the professorship Microbiome-Host Interactions.

The W3 professorship was established within the Cluster of Excellence "Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections" and will be integrated into the new M3 Research Institute, which combines tumor research (malignancy) with metabolism and microbiome research.

Lisa Maier's research is dedicated to the bacteria of the human gut microbiome, in particular their interactions with each other and with the host. She is particularly interested in the effects of antibiotic and non-antibiotic drugs on the composition and functionality of the gut microbiome and their consequences for therapeutic success, side effects and resistance development. She and her team then use the insights gained to develop new microbiome-based therapeutics, including in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GlaxoSmithKline. She uses interdisciplinary approaches at the interface of microbiology, systems biology and bioinformatics to develop new methods to better understand and study previously poorly characterized gut bacteria, some of which are difficult to culture. Her work has resulted in several awards, patents, and honors, such as the Robert Koch Postdoctoral Award in Microbiology.

She prefers to spend her free time with her family actively in nature (cycling, swimming or hiking) or comfortably on the sofa (with a good (children's) book).