Ruth Ley is a microbial ecologist who studies the diversity, evolution and function of the human gut microbiome. A major focus of her research has been the evolutionary relationships between humans and their gut microbes. She demonstrated that host genetics contributes to microbiome composition and identified heritable microbial taxa associated with metabolic health. Through large-scale comparative studies, she showed that many gut microbes share an evolutionary history with their hosts, providing evidence for long-term host–microbe associations and codiversification. Her laboratory has also uncovered molecular mechanisms of host–microbiome interaction, including immune evasion of flagellins produced by commensal gut bacteria, and the integration of microbially derived lipids into host metabolic pathways.
Ruth is the Director of Department of Microbiome Science at the the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen, Germany.
Professional position
- Director, Department of Microbiome Science, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Max Planck Society
