Petra LOUIS is a molecular microbiologist who has worked in the field of gut microbiology, human nutrition and health since 2002. She is interested in health-promoting effects exerted by the human gut microbiota, with a focus on microbial dietary non-digestible carbohydrate degradation, fermentation and metabolite production. She employs a wide range of technical approaches, including strictly anaerobic microbiology, molecular microbial community analysis of in vitro and human dietary studies, -omics technologies and mathematical modelling, to elucidate the functional roles of different gut microbes and their community interactions.