A/Prof Samuel Forster leads the Microbiota and Systems Biology Laboratory within the Centre of Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. Research within Dr Forster’s laboratory combines microbiology, immunology and computational biology to understand the role of gastrointestinal microbiota and determine ways to modify these communities to improve human health. His work has resulted in the development of methods to culture the majority of human gastrointestinal microbiota, advanced algorithms for metagenomics analysis and identification of rationally selected live biotherapeutic candidates for diseases including Clostridioides difficile infections and IBD.