Prof. Kristin Verbeke, PharmD, PhD, is Professor at the Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism of KU Leuven, Belgium, where she conducts research at the interface of gastroenterology, nutrition, and the gut microbiome. Trained as a pharmacist, she has extensive expertise in the application of stable isotope technologies and mass spectrometry to investigate gastrointestinal function, host-microbiome interactions, and microbial metabolism in humans. Her research focuses on understanding how diet, prebiotics, probiotics, and other nutritional interventions influence microbial metabolism and contribute to gastrointestinal and metabolic health. Her group has developed and applied innovative analytical approaches to study intestinal transit, permeability, nutrient metabolism, microbial fermentation, and metabolite production in both healthy individuals and patient populations. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, her research has provided important insights into the role of microbial metabolism in gastrointestinal and metabolic physiology and gut-brain communication, as well as the role of nutrition in modulating microbiome function. She has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers and has successfully led numerous nationally and internationally funded research projects. Prof. Verbeke currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Centre and Co-Chair of the ILSI Europe Prebiotics Task Force.