People

Matti Gralka - Group leader

Matti is an assistant professor in the Systems Biology group at the A-LIFE department at VU Amsterdam. Before moving to Amsterdam, he did his PhD in Physics at the University of California Berkeley with Oskar Hallatschek before switching to marine microbial ecology in Otto Cordero's lab at MIT.

Click here for his full CV and Google Scholar profile. 

To get in touch, simply email him at m.gralka@vu.nl. 

Sarah Flickinger - PhD student

Sarah studies the effects of phages on marine microbial communities. She holds an MSc in Biological Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island (USA) and a BA in Biology from Vassar College (USA). Previously, she has worked at the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a scientist at biotechnology startups, and as an environmental scientist. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities.  

Charlie Berendsen - MSc student

Charlie is interested in modeling the effects of phages in microbial communities through computer simulations. He is pursuing an MSc in Systems Biology and Bioinformatics at the VU and holds two undergraduate degrees in Biological/Biosystems Engineering (TU Delft) and  Information & Interactive Media Design (ArtEZ University of the Arts).

Laura Volle - MSc student

Laura is studying the properties of duplicated enzymes in bacterial genomes. She is pursuing an MSc in Biomedical Sciences at the Universiteit van Amsterdam and holds a BSc in Biomedicine from Karolinska Institutet.

Alumni

John Collins (MSc internship, Systems Biology & Bioinformatics, 2025, in collaboration with Linda Amaral-Zettler) 

Kunal Chaudhary (MSc internship, Systems Biology & Bioinformatics, 2025) 

Yurita Atmopawiro (BSc internship, Biology, 2025)

Victor Piaskowski (MSc internship, Computational Sciences (UvA), 2025) 

Helun Șenoğlu (MSc internship, Biomolecular Sciences, 2025)

Francesca Barbieri (MSc internship, Systems Biology & Bioinformatics, 2024, in collaboration with Linda Amaral-Zettler)

Sanne Petersen (MSc internship, Systems Biology & Bioinformatics, 2024)

Yuecheng Liu (MSc internship, Systems Biology & Bioinformatics, 2023)

Florence Berbain (MSc internship, Systems Biology & Bioinformatics, 2023)

Tania Alonso Vasquez (Visiting PhD student, University of Florence, 2023)

Ashima Khanna (MSc internship, TU Munich, 2023)

Ana Cudic (BSc internship, Biology, 2023)

Sangamithra Kumar Senthil (MSc internship, Biomolecular sciences, 2023)

Jerom Groenewegen (MSc internship, Systems Biology & Bioinformatics, 2023)