In a collaboration with the lab of Jeroen Raes (KUL) and Luc De Vuyst (VUB), Stefan has helped exploring human gut community dynamics. We established a synthetic community composed of three representative human gut isolates (Roseburia intestinalis L1-82, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii A2-165 and Blautia hydrogenotrophica S5a33) and explored their interactions under well-controlled conditions in vitro. Using a mechanistic model as reference, we demonstrated that strains grown in co-culture behaved differently than those in mono-culture and confirmed their altered behavior at the transcriptional level. For more information, see the publication in eLife.