Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Alan Walker is a microbiologist with specific interests in the bacteria that inhabit the gastrointestinal tracts of mammalian hosts. After receiving a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology from the University of Aberdeen he studied for his PhD at the Rowett Institute and at the University of Dundee, specialising in gut microbiology and the role that intestinal bacteria play in the breakdown of dietary fibre. Following his PhD he spent eight years at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, a leading centre for genomic research, before moving to the University of Aberdeen where he began as a Senior Lecturer and is now a Professor (Personal Chair). His current research uses a combination of state of the art anaerobic culturing and DNA sequencing techniques to better characterise gut microbial communities and shed light on the roles these microbes play both in health and in disease.
