Benedita Sampaio Maia is a microbiologist and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and a senior researcher at i3S – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto (UPorto), Portugal.

Her research focuses on the human microbiome and its role in health and disease, with a particular interest in the oral ecosystem and its interactions with the host. She is especially interested in how the oral and gut microbiota are established and evolve during early life, how maternal and environmental factors shape these microbial communities, and how early microbial trajectories may influence health later in life. Her research also explores oral-systemic interactions, including the microbiota–brain axis and the links between the oral microbiome and cardiometabolic and kidney health.

Within MetaHealth, Benedita leads the work at the University of Porto involving the OralBioBorn cohort, investigating the development of the oral and gut microbiome in mother–child pairs during the first 1000 days of life and the influence of maternal cardiometabolic health on these processes.