Internship 2026-2027 Master

 
Title of the internship: Exploratory Analyses of the Gut Microbiome in Asian Elephants
Supervisor(s): Diogo Franco dos Santos & Elisa Somenzi

Institute: University of Turku (Finland) - Biology department

Summary: This project will investigate gut microbiome diversity and composition in Asian elephants, focusing on how microbial communities vary during early life. Using existing microbiome sequencing data, the study will characterise microbial diversity and community composition and explore changes associated with the taming process, diet, and management. The findings will be interpreted in the context of elephant health, welfare, and conservation.

The project will provide hands-on training in bioinformatics and metagenomics, including microbiome sequence processing, taxonomic profiling, diversity analysis, and statistical interpretation. Students will gain practical experience with command-line tools and R, including data manipulation, visualization, multivariate analyses, and interpretation of microbiome data in an animal health and conservation context.

Other information (if applicable):

Contact (name and email): Diogo - diogo.francodossantos@utu.fi Elisa – elisa.somenzi@utu.fi 

Insertion within an ongoing research project: no 

Publications in the field of research (up to 3): 

Adair, K. L., & Douglas, A. E. (2017). Making a microbiome: The many determinants of host-associated microbial community composition. Current Opinion in Microbiology, 35, 23–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2016.11.002

Klinhom, S., Sriwichaiin, S., Kerdphoo, S., Khonmee, J., Chattipakorn, N., Chattipakorn, S. C., & Thitaram, C. (2023). Characteristics of gut microbiota in captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from infant to elderly. Scientific Reports, 13, 23027. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50429-1

Zhu, L., Wang, J., & Bahrndorff, S. (2021). Editorial: The wildlife gut microbiome and its implication for conservation biology. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12, 697499. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.697499