Microbial communities are everywhere and drive many basic processes in our everyday life, in areas that include agriculture, health, and the environment. Prof Mizrahi’s group is involved in understanding the ecological and evolutionary forces that shape microbial communities in nature, and specifically in gut environments. Understanding these forces enables us to predict and modulate the composition of the microbiome towards optimized functionality and find new applications by tuning the bovine microbiome to decrease its environmental impact and increase available food resources for mankind.