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.  

Francesca Barbieri - MSc student

Francesca studies microbial communities on plastics in the ocean, co-advised by Linda Amaral-Zettler. She has a BSc in Genomics from the Università di Bologna and is now getting a MSc in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at the Vrije Universiteit and Universiteit van Amsterdam. 

Sanne Petersen - MSc student

Sanne works on nitrogen metabolism in marine heterotrophic bacteria. She holds a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from VU Amsterdam and is now getting her MSc in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at the Vrije Universiteit and Universiteit van Amsterdam.

John Collins - MSc student

John studies the dynamics of microbial communities living on ocean plastics. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University and studied Microbiology and Computer Science at the University of Victoria. Previously, he worked in operations at Volvo Cars, as lead engineer at biotechnology startups, and is an experienced startup founder. He is interested in a wide variety of topics including microbial ecology, synthetic biology, biomolecular simulations, microscopy, and life in extreme environments. He is pursuing a Master's of Science in Systems Biology. 

Alumni

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)