Paediatric Diseases Modeling

Research

Prof Burcu Tepekule’s research aims to understand how microbial exposures during early life shape lifelong health and immune function. Early life presents a limited time window to “educate” the immune system, with lasting consequences for susceptibility to infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, and metabolic conditions. She approaches this question from multiple quantitative perspectives: mechanistic mathematical models to formalize biological processes, causal inference methods to disentangle complex host–microbiome interactions and identify potential causal pathways, and statistical methods for analysing longitudinal pediatric cohort data. By integrating data from pediatric cohorts in Switzerland and internationally, her group aims to uncover the mechanisms and early biomarkers that can inform novel diagnostic tools and microbiome-based interventions, ranging from antibiotic stewardship to personalized probiotic therapies.

 

Prof Burcu Tepekule

Prof Burcu Tepekule is a mathematical and computational biologist in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Basel, where she develops quantitative approaches to study how early-life host–microbiome interactions shape lifelong health and disease. Originally trained as an electrical engineer, she transitioned into computational biology during her PhD at ETH Zürich. She subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the University Hospital Zürich, Princeton University, and the University of Bern, where she worked on a range of questions in infection and immunity, including antibiotic resistance evolution, infectious disease dynamics, host–microbiome interactions, and the long-term effects of infection history on the immune system.

Open Positions

Publications

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

Paediatric Diseases Modeling Projects

Restoring Homeostasis: microbiome-driven immune dysregulation in pediatric disease

Early Warning System: gut colonization and neonatal sepsis risk

Early-life gut microbiome and antibody development

Prof Burcu Tepekule’s research seeks to understand how microbial exposures during early life shape lifelong health and immune function. She approaches this question through complementary quantitative perspectives: mechanistic mathematical models to formalize biological processes, causal inference methods to disentangle complex host–microbiome interactions and statistical methods for analysing longitudinal paediatric cohort data. Her overarching goal is to translate these insights into novel diagnostic tools and microbiome-based interventions, spanning applications from antibiotic stewardship to personalized probiotic therapies.

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