The Mende Lab is a computational group studying the evolution and biology of microbial communities (e.g. the human microbiome) as well as pathogens. The main focus of the group is on the analysis of sequencing data. We focus on the analyses metagenomics and genomics data while integrating additional datasets to gain a better understanding of the biological principles behind microbial evolution and host/environment-microbe interactions. The group is further involved in the development of state-of-the-art methods for metagenomics data analysis such as the mOTUs tool. We work in close collaboration with the GGD Amsterdam as well as reference laboratories. In a world, where sequencing data has become ubiquitous, our vision is to combine local expertise with global data to understand the mechanisms and underlying evolutionary history of our relationship with our microbial companions and opponents.