Karla Müller is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). She is working on eco-evolutionary dynamics in the infant microbiome as part of the MetaHealth consortium, investigating how the formation of an infant’s gut and oral microbiome within the first three years relates to disease. 

Karla is a South African researcher who graduated with her BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology, from Nelson Mandela University, where her interest in the relationship between genetics and diseases started. She was awarded an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship through the University of Grenoble Alpes, France, to study a MSc in Precision Medicine, which she completed with University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and University of Groningen, the Netherlands. During her MSc thesis she investigated how phenotypic qualities of uroseptic bacteria related to their infection, developing an interest in eco-evolutionary dynamics. 

After graduating she worked as a research assistant at UvA gaining valuable experience in metagenomics, with Dr Paula Dalcin Martins, investigating viral impacts on greenhouse gas emissions from soils and marine sediments.