A Special Interview with Journal Senior Editor - Prof. Erwin Gerard Zoetendal

The Editorial Office of Microbiome Research Reports (MRR) was pleased to have a special interview with Prof. Erwin Gerard Zoetendal, Senior Editor of the journal, on November 22 regarding his review article "Use of synthetic communities to study microbial ecology of the gut", which was published on MRR on January 20, 2022.

About Prof. Erwin Gerard Zoetendal

Prof. Erwin Gerard Zoetendal is an Associate Professor at the Laboratory of Microbiology of Wageningen University & Research. In December 2014, he received an honorary appointment as Guest Professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China. His research focuses on the role of microbiome in the intestine and how this is related to diet and health. In his research, a wide variety of culture-independent methods are used to characterize the microbiota composition and -activity in cohorts of healthy and compromised subjects in combination with dedicated in vitro laboratory experiments using fecal slurries and defined cultures with the ambition to understand the ecology of the intestinal ecosystem. Prof. Zoetendal is a well-recognized expert in intestinal microbiology and was one of the pioneers in using 16S ribosomal RNA technologies to study the intestinal microbiota in humans. His H-index is 67 (November 2022, Scopus). He has given numerous lectures at international and local meetings, including the Rome Foundation AGA Institute Lectureship at the Digestive Disease Week 2010. Moreover, he is an elected member of the Rome Foundation as well as a member of the Editorial Board or Ad Hoc Reviewer of several international journals.

About his Review Article “Use of synthetic communities to study microbial ecology of the gut"

1. This work was supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (SIAM Gravitation grant, project 024.002.002).

2. This review described the considerations that should be taken into account when constructing a synthetic community by discussing example research questions that can be answered by using a synthetic microbial community, the choice of microbial species, the growth conditions, possible reactor setups, and the parameters to analyze.

Focus Interview Questions:

1. Why the application of in vitro synthetic microbial communities is an excellent approach to modeling the ecological interactions between microbes in the human gastrointestinal tract?

2. You mentioned in the review article that in vitro synthetic communities and metabolic modeling can complement each other. Could you please elucidate this point in detail?

3. What are the advantages of using synthetic communities to study microbial ecology of the gut?

4. What is the main focus of your recent research?

5. What do you consider to be your best paper and why? What did it change about the way people approach the field?

6. What was the defining moment that led you to your field?

7. Can you talk about the topic of your report at the International Symposium on Gastrointestinal Microbial Ecology and Functionality?

8. Do you have any suggestions for the development of the journal?

View the Following Video to Find Answers:

Respectfully Submitted by the Editorial Office
Microbiome Research Reports