Dr Rokas Juodeikis

Biography

I am a microbiologist interested in how gut microbes communicate with and support the health of their host. I started my independent research career as an Early Career Fellow at the Quadram Institute, where I showed that vesicles released by the gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron capture nutrients such as iron and vitamin B12 and can reach the host’s circulation. In 2026 I was awarded a five-year Jonathan Knowles Research Fellowship at the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School. My research now focuses on bacterial extracellular vesicles and their interactions with the host, and I am part of a collaborative project developing next-generation probiotics that act through the gut–immune–brain axis to protect against age-related decline of the brain and eyes. I am especially interested in how beneficial microbes can be incorporated into our diets, and I welcome collaborations across microbiology, nutrition and food science.