VIB is a life sciences research institute in Flanders, Belgium. With more than 1470 scientists from over 60 countries, carrying out basic research into the molecular foundations of life. VIB is an excellence-based entrepreneurial institute that focuses on translating basic scientific results into pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial applications. VIB works in close partnership with five universities − UGent, KU Leuven, University of Antwerp, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Hasselt University and is funded by the Flemish government. Research at VIB is focused on the fundamental understanding of various areas of the life sciences ranging from Cardiovascular research, Immunology and Cancer to Systems Biology and Microbiology, with frequent contributions in top ranked journals such as Nature, Science and Cell. VIB develops and disseminates a wide range of science-based information about all aspects of biotechnology. Research at VIB is focused on the fundamental understanding of various areas of the life sciences ranging from Cardiovascular research, Immunology and Cancer to Systems Biology and Microbiology, with frequent contributions in top ranked journals such as Nature, Science and Cell. The Raes lab has a substantial track record in microbiome research and has been pioneering the analysis and integration of meta-omics datasets with environmental, clinical and dietary data, in both large-scale population, clinical and intervention studies. To handle large-scale sampling efforts, the Raes lab has a fully automated microbiome sample handling, extraction and library preparation robotic system (100s/day), as well as a 400 node computing cluster, a fully equipped microbiology lab and access to the Flemish Supercomputing Centre.
