About the Founder

Md. Rayhan Mahmud, PhD, is a microbiome researcher working at the intersection of microbial ecology, animal microbiomes, nutrition, microbiome interventions, bioinformatics, and quantitative data analysis.

He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the DogRisk Research Group at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland, where his work focuses on companion-animal microbiota, diet–microbiome relationships, and links between microbial patterns, obesity, and metabolic health.

Research background

Rayhan has an academic background in microbiology, genetics, veterinary microbiome research, and computational analysis.

His doctoral research focused on gut microbiota-driven interventions in piglets, including natural microbial development, antibiotic exposure, bacteriophage therapy, and their relationships with growth and health.

His research experience includes work with:

• gut microbiota and microbial ecology
• animal microbiomes
• dietary interventions
• antibiotics and antimicrobial effects
• bacteriophage-based interventions
• canine and porcine microbiome research
• 16S rRNA sequencing and microbiome profiling
• bioinformatics and statistical analysis
• longitudinal and multivariate microbiome data

Current research

His current work focuses mainly on the canine gut microbiome, with particular interest in how diet shapes microbial communities and whether diet-associated microbiome patterns are linked with obesity, metabolic health, and other host characteristics.

This work includes the analysis of longitudinal and intervention data from client-owned dogs, together with dietary, clinical, and lifestyle information.

More broadly, he is interested in understanding how microbiome research can connect animal health, human health, nutrition, and One Health.

Scientific interests

His main research interests include:

• microbiome ecology
• diet–microbiome interactions
• animal and comparative microbiomes
• microbial interventions
• bacteriophages
• antimicrobial effects on microbial communities
• obesity and metabolic health
• microbiome bioinformatics
• statistical modelling of microbiome data
• reproducible research workflows

Bioinformatics and data analysis

Rayhan works with microbiome data using tools and methods that include:

• QIIME 2 and DADA2
• R-based microbiome workflows
• alpha- and beta-diversity analysis
• differential abundance analysis
• mixed-effects modelling
• multivariate statistics
• machine learning
• data visualization
• longitudinal microbiome analysis

He is particularly interested in translating complex microbiome datasets into clear and biologically meaningful interpretations.

Why Microbes World was created

Microbes World was created to provide a practical and scientifically grounded resource for people who want to understand microbiology, microbiome science, nutrition, bioinformatics, and biological data analysis.

The aim is not only to explain scientific concepts, but also to help students and researchers understand how microbiome studies are designed, analysed, interpreted, and communicated.

The site combines foundational microbiology with modern microbiome research and computational approaches, with particular attention to the connections among microbes, diet, animals, humans, and health.

Scientific communication

Rayhan believes that scientific information should be accurate without being unnecessarily difficult to understand.

For this reason, Microbes World aims to present scientific topics in a way that remains useful to researchers while also being understandable to students and readers who are still developing their expertise.

Articles may include explanations of scientific concepts, research methods, analytical workflows, interpretation of published studies, and practical guidance for microbiome research.

Research and publications

A separate Research & Publications page provides more information about research projects, publications, scientific interests, and related academic work.

You can also connect through professional platforms such as:

ORCID · Google Scholar · ResearchGate · LinkedIn · GitHub