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Agenda Brain, bacteria, and behaviour summer course
7 July 2025 to 11 July 2025

The role of the microbiome-gut-brain axis is a hot topic in mental health research. To get acquainted with state-of-the art research findings and data analysis methods, we invite students to Nijmegen, The Netherlands for this full week summer school.

Lectures and practical sessions will be taught by international experts, including prof. dr. Leo Lahti (Turku University), prof. dr. Aletta Kraneveld (Utrecht University), prof. dr. Rochellys Diaz Heijtz (Karolinska Institutet), dr. Mirjam Bloemendaal (Goethe University Hospital Frankfurt) and dr. Alejandro Arias Vasquez (Radboudumc Nijmegen). After this summer school, students can start to design, conduct and analyse their own gut microbiome brain studies.

To understand behaviour, we often think only of studying the brain. However, there is another key system, almost always overlooked, involved in the normal functioning of the brain: the Gastro Intestinal system. Just like the brain, this system has a large, independent nervous system, and it is in close communication with the brain through the gut-brain axis. Inside the gut live trillions bacteria (microbiota) that affect immune function, metabolism, mood and behaviour. Due to rapid developments in genetic sequencing methods, we can now investigate bacterial life in the gut. This has led to a new line in cognitive, behavioural and psychiatric research that studies the gut microbiome-brain axis. However, as the field is still young, there is still a need for consensus on how to perform gut-microbiota bioinformatic and statistical analyses.

This course aims to teach students about the different options, and consequences, in collecting, preprocessing and analysing gut microbiota data in the context of mental health.

We welcome participants from various backgrounds, including nutrition, medicine, (micro)biology, neuroscience, behavioural science and psychiatry. The course consists of 50% interactive lectures by international experts in the field, and 50% practical data analysis sessions using the MIA-verse framework in R (https://microbiome.github.io/).

At the end of the course, participants will have a good understanding of the promises and pitfalls of studying the gut microbiome in relation to brain health, and will have the basic skills to design and conduct methodologically robust studies investigating the role of the gut microbiota in mental health, cognition and behaviour. Participants who have completed the full course will receive a certificate of attendance stating that the course is equivalen to 2 ECTS.

Download the flyer here.