Microbiology

Decoding bacterial interactions, from molecules to ecosystems

We study how bacteria sense, communicate, compete, and adapt in complex ecosystems, with a particular focus on members of the Bacteroidota phylum. These organisms play key ecological roles across different environments ranging from oceans to the human gut, yet much of their biology remains largely unexplored.

The Linares-Otoya lab combines microbiology, synthetic biology, biochemistry, structural and computational biology to connect molecular mechanisms to ecosystem-level function, with implications for microbiome engineering, biotechnology and human health.