Manimozhiyan Arumugam appointed Professor in AI-driven patient stratification and microbiome-based interventions at SDU and OUH

About the professorship

Manimozhiyan Arumugam has been appointed Professor at the Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark and OUH, Odense University Hospital. He is also affiliated with the FLASH-Centre for Liver Research and OPEN, the Open Patient Data Explorative Network.

His research focuses on the interplay between the human gut microbiome and human health. Using computational biology, multi-omics, artificial intelligence and experimental methods, he and his research group investigate how microbial communities interact with the host and contribute to the development of disease.

An important area of the professorship will be translational research into the interplay between the gut and the liver. Among other things, the aim is to gain a better understanding of disease mechanisms, identify biologically meaningful subgroups of patients and find dietary or other interventions that could eventually be tested in clinical studies.

The professorship also builds on existing national and international collaborations. Manimozhiyan Arumugam collaborates on microbiome and liver research with Aleksander Krag and colleagues in Odense, Jonel Trebicka in Germany and Nicola Segata in Italy, among others. He also leads the data integration work in the international PIG-PARADIGM consortium.

Where the professorship is based

The professorship is based at the University of Southern Denmark. Manimozhiyan Arumugam has been an adjunct professor at SDU since 2017.

Since 2013, he has also been an associate professor and research group leader at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen.

The appointment takes effect on 1 November.

About his academic profile

Manimozhiyan Arumugam is a microbiome researcher and data scientist with an interdisciplinary background in biotechnology, computer science and computational biology. He studied at Anna University in Chennai, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg.

At EMBL, he was part of Peer Bork’s research group, where he investigated differences in the human gut microbiome between individuals. Among other things, he led the work that resulted in the identification of so-called enterotypes – characteristic patterns in the composition of the human gut microbiome.

He has since established a research profile at the intersection of microbiome research, data science and disease biology. His research combines large microbiome datasets and multi-omics with artificial intelligence and experimental approaches to develop a more detailed understanding of the role microorganisms play in human health.

Manimozhiyan Arumugam is also a founding scientific organiser of the EMBO|EMBL symposium series The Human Microbiome, which was launched in 2015 and will hold its fifth edition in 2027. He is an Academic Editor at the scientific journal PLOS Biology and was previously an editor at mSystems.

Alongside his scientific research, he has actively worked to communicate microbiome science beyond traditional academic settings. This has included podcasts, exhibitions and collaborations with artists, as well as activities with colleagues at the medical museum Medical Museion and international researchers working at the intersection of art and science.