Dr. Jingyuan Fu is a professor of systems medicine in the University Medical Centre Groningen, the Netherlands and an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW). She obtained a BSc in Biochemistry, a MSc in Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (cum laude), and a PhD in systems genetics (cum laude). Via this route she developed her research interest on host-microbe interactions in complex traits and diseases using integrative genomics approaches and aims to acquire a greater knowledge of how the human genome and the gut microbiome interact with each other and affect human health, in order to create better methods for disease prediction, prevention, and treatment. To accomplish this, her study combines with large-scale genetic and microbial association studies in big groups of individuals with functional studies using advanced bacterial culturing and organ-on-chip technologies. She holds numerous prestigious personal grants (NWO-VENI VIDI VICI, and ERC-CoG) and several (inter)national consortia grants. She is a laureate of AMMODO Science Award in 2023. and is recognized as an “Highly Cited Researcher” by Web of Science.
Microbial genetic diversity in human health and disease
The human gut microbiome exhibits substantial inter-individual variability, not only in taxonomic composition, but also in its genetic landscape. By systematically assessing microbial genetic diversity at multiple levels, including subspecies-level genetic diversity, single-nucleotide variants within core genomes, and structural variations mostly in shell genomes, we demonstrated that microbial genetic diversity is associated with environmental exposures (such as geographic location), human genetics, aging, and health status. In addition, we also developed several bioinformatics pipelines to assess the functionality of microbial genetic variants and ecological mechanisms that may underlie genetic variation. They include the Structure-based Annotation of Microbial Polymorphisms pipeline (stAMP) and Horizontal Gene Transfer Detection from MAGs in Individuals (HDMI).
Reference:
- Andreu-Sánchez S, …, Fu J*, Segata N*. Global genetic diversity of human gut microbiome species is related to geographic location and host health. Cell. 2025 188(15):3942-3959.e9
- Peng H, … Fu J, Longitudinal gut microbiota tracking reveals the dynamics of horizontal gene transfer. Nat Commun. 2025 Nov 22;16(1):11543.
- Peng H, Ruiz-Moreno AJ, Fu J. Multi-dimensional metagenomics. Nature Reviews Bioengineering. 2025; 12:1057-1072.
- Zhernakova DV, …, Fu J. Host genetic regulation of human gut microbial structural variation. Nature. 2024;625(7996):813-821.
- Chen L, …, Fu J. The long-term genetic stability and individual specificity of the human gut microbiome. Cell. 2021; 184(9):2302-2315
- Wang D, …, Fu J. Characterization of gut microbial structural variations as determinants of human bile acid metabolism. Cell Host Microbe. 2021;29(12):1802-1814.e5.