Portrait Stefanie Widder

Ap.-Prof.in Stefanie Widder, PhD, P.D.in

Medical University of Vienna
KIM1/Infectious Biology
Waehringer Guertel 18-20
A-1090 Vienna, Austria

Phone: ++43 1 40400-51480
stefanie.widder(AT)meduniwien.ac.at
My research focuses on the evolution of community-wide interaction architecture and complex, emergent community function across scales of biological organization. From cellular regulation to the ecology of microbiota, interactions are mounted in response to noisy signals and exhibit remarkable context-dependence and historical contingency. These aspects are particularly important in our biomedical microbiome research.
Explaining how complex functions of biological communities emerge from the interactions among their parts is a fundamental question in systems biology and my principal focus. Therefore, I link conceptual modeling with data-driven approaches to gain predictive understanding and to generate testable hypotheses. We integrate concepts from a range of disciplines including microbiology, immunology, ecology, evo-devo, computer science, applied mathematics and physics to better dissect the mechanics of communities and inspire cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange (papers).

Keywords:
interactions | biological complexity | microbial communities | gut-lung axis | systems dynamics | regulatory motifs | multi-omics | network science | mathematical modeling




FWF