Clara Belzer

Clara Belzer is a Professor at the Laboratory of Microbiology at Wageningen University, where she leads groundbreaking research on the intestinal microbiome and its role in human health. After completing her PhD at Erasmus University Medical Center and postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, she established herself as a leading authority on microbiome research. Her work focuses on understanding how intestinal microbes interact with host-produced glycans in mucus and milk, with particular emphasis on beneficial microbes like Akkermansia muciniphila. She heads the "Microbes Mucus and Milk" research group, investigating microbial degradation pathways, microbe-microbe interactions, and host-microbe adaptations. Her research has revealed crucial insights into how human milk oligosaccharides support beneficial gut bacteria and how mucosal microbes influence immune and metabolic health. Her contributions to the field have earned her recognition among the top 1% most-cited researchers since 2020 by Clarivate Analytics. She has published over 100 papers in prestigious journals including Nature Medicine and PNAS, and developed a popular MOOC on "Nutrition and Health: Human Microbiome" that has attracted over 67,000 enrollments. Her current projects include investigating early-life microbiota development, immune fitness, and the therapeutic potential of prebiotics in children's health