(599c) Modeling Context Dependency in Interspecies Interactions: No Permanent Friends or Enemies in the Microbial Jungle

Microorganisms are social – arguably more so than humans. In natural habitats, microorganisms form communities where they build diverse relationships with other species. Intriguingly, the networks of interacting species are not static; they continuously reorganize in response to environmental and compositional changes over space and time. Developing a predictive understanding of how these interactions vary across different contexts is crucial for microbiome engineering. This goal can be effectively achieved through the synergistic integration of data-driven and metabolic modeling approaches. In this talk, I will present recent advancements in computational and modeling methods that enable the prediction of how membership and environmental factors modulate microbial interactions.