Melike was featured in a Q&A in Communications Biology, “Decoding ageing: Handan Melike Dönertaş on microbiomes, AI and improving lifespan and healthspan”.
The conversation covers the lab’s research interests — using computational approaches (machine learning, predictive modelling, causal inference, bioinformatics) alongside microbiota-transfer experiments to understand how the microbiome shapes ageing — and traces the path from MSc work on evolutionary and comparative genomics at Middle East Technical University, where the selection shadow idea first reframed ageing as a phenotype distinct from development, to starting the lab at FLI in January 2023.
Other topics include the realistic prospects for delaying ageing (extending healthspan looks plausible; “stopping” ageing is far more speculative given its systemic, multifactorial nature), and the importance of building inclusive, equitable research environments — through intentional recruitment, mentorship tailored to underrepresented students, multilingual outreach, and engaging with academia’s structural inequalities.
Read the full Q&A — Communications Biology 7, 1579 (2024).