In my presentation, I will speak about the captivating roles of temperate phages within the human gut microbiome and in broader ecological contexts.

I will introduce how my team and I systematically investigate these phages and how they respond to environmental shifts like antibiotics, dietary changes, and dysbiosis, using an integration of meta-genomics, longitudinal cohorts, and in-vitro gut models. Moreover, a further focus is placed on an understudied group of temperate phages, termed phage-plasmids. I will present our work on mapping their high, fascinating diversity in the gut (and beyond), as well as examining their link to competitive dynamics in the high-priority pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii.

Finally, I will highlight how we are developing new computational tools and classification frameworks to enhance the precision of phage (meta-)genomics, and how these ultimately help us to understand the role of phages in shaping gut microbiome stability and human health.