Head of the Working Group "Human Microbiomes" at the Research Unit Comparative Microbiome Analysis
Dr. Silvia Gschwendtner
"The human microbiome provides many functions that are essential for our health. A dysbiosis of our microbiome consequently triggers disease. Thus, it is of prime importance to identify keystone microbial taxa which determine the functionality of the microbiome and develop strategies to promote their activity."
Academic Pathway
Silvia Gschwendtner holds a diploma in Biology and a PhD in Natural Sciences.
She started her career as Research Fellow at Helmholtz Munich, followed by two years at the Technical University Munich. At that time she strongly focused on the analysis of consequences of the release of transgenic plants for the soil microbiome, including questions of horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic resistance genes. Afterwards, she returned to Helmholtz Munich, focusing her work on the role of microbiomes in different environments and their impact on the development of diseases. Nowadays she is involved in major activities at Helmholtz Munich, where cohorts are used to assess drivers for health and disease. Silvia is responsible for the assessment of microbiomes in these studies.
Silvia has strong background in the molecular analysis of microbiomes using high throughput sequencing approaches: She established several bioinformatics pipelines, which help her to identify core microbiomes and keystone species based on the obtained sample materials.
Work and Expertise
Professional Background
Head of Working Group “Human Microbiomes” at COMI
Research Scientist at COMI
Publications
Orth, N. ; Siefen, N. ; Staudt, J. ; Mahmoud, F.M. ; Benning, S. ; Gschwendtner, S. ; Pielhop, T.P. ; Hauschild, K. ; Schloter, M. ; Schmitz, M. ; Winkelmann, T.
Linking microbial community composition of three rootstock genotypes to apple replant disease susceptibility.Gschwendtner, S. ; Maison, N. ; Illi, S. ; von Mutius, E. ; Rosenboom, I. ; Tümmler, B. ; Dittrich, A. ; Weckmann, M. ; Abdo, M. ; Waschki, B. ; Kopp, M.V. ; Hansen, G. ; Brinkmann, F. ; Rabe, K. ; Schaub, B. ; Schloter, M.
Fragmented microbial networks and moraxella-driven airway clustering characterize preschool wheezers across the gut – airways axis.CARVALHO, A. ; Gschwendtner, S. ; Schloter, M. ; Gil, A.M. ; Marques, C.R.
Stool microbiota variations along the adenoma-colorectal carcinoma sequence — robustness of disease-associated microbial features.Somehsarei, N.N. ; Hadi, J.L. ; Khan Mirzaei, M. ; Deng, L. ; Gigl, M. ; Dawid, C. ; Schmitt-Kopplin, P. ; Geydirici, I. ; Schloter, M. ; Gschwendtner, S.
In vitro metabolic signaling in two intestinal bacterial isolates: Glutamate-driven transcriptional and functional reprogramming in Clostridium butyricum and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.Steegmüller, T. ; Walch, S. ; Gschwendtner, S. ; Klingl, A. ; French, L.E. ; Flaig, M. ; Clanner-Engelshofen, B.M.
Third generation genome sequencing of the endobacterium Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii subsp. demodicis reveals details of its microbe-host-Interaction with the most complex human commensal, Demodex folliculorum.Geydirici, I. ; Martinez-Cuesta, R. ; Bibinger, S. ; Espíndola-Hernández, P. ; Gschwendtner, S. ; Rodríguez-Berbel, N. ; Schulz, S. ; Schloter, M.
Digging deeper into soil metagenomics: Opportunities and limitations for studying the genomic potential of soil bacteria and archaea.Gschwendtner, S. ; Kovacevic, D. ; Gaede, K.I. ; Herzmann, C. ; Overmann, J. ; Schloter, M. ; Krauss-Etschmann, S.
Longitudinal dynamics and site-specific recovery of the human respiratory microbiome following smoking cessation.Espíndola-Hernández, P. ; Banerjee, S. ; Abdulmalik, A.O. ; Andrade Linares, D.R. ; Baldi, G. ; Berg, G. ; Brearley, F.Q. ; Flocco, C.G. ; Galgani, L. ; Gegeckienė, L. ; Gschwendtner, S. ; Hensen, T. ; Kostić, T. ; Ledesma-Amaro, R. ; Maier, L. ; Marciniak, A. ; Ohan, J. ; Overmann, J. ; Rito, T. ; Ryan, M.J. ; Schulz, S. ; Vieira, S. ; Schloter, M.
A trait-based framework to identify microbial keystone taxa for microbiome engineering.Schloter, M. ; Somehsarei, N.N. ; Gschwendtner, S.
Künstliche Darmmodelle: Potenziale und Grenzen der Mikrobiomforschung.Staude, B. ; Gschwendtner, S. ; Frodermann, T. ; Oehmke, F. ; Kohl, T. ; Walch, S. ; Schloter, M. ; Ehrhardt, H.
Association of specific microbiota taxa in the amniotic fluid at birth with severe acute and longer-term outcomes of very preterm infants: A prospective observational study.