Renaud Van Damme

I am a postdoctoral researcher and bioinformatician at the Seydlitz Laboratory at SLU. My background combines bioinformatics, metagenomics and microbial ecology with cattle genetics and breeding, with a particular interest in translating complex biological data into tools and knowledge relevant to livestock production.

My current research focuses on the rumen microbiome and its relationship with methane emissions, feed utilisation and milk production. This includes collaborative work on methane-related traits with Växa Sverige and the Global Methane Genetics initiative, as well as projects within the Seydlitz Laboratory integrating microbiome, feed and production data.

Alongside my research, I develop reproducible bioinformatics workflows and software for metagenomics, including MUFFIN and PANKEGG. I am also involved in international scientific networks and organisations including EMBnet, EAAP and the EU-LI-PHE COST Action.

My research sits at the intersection of bioinformatics, microbiology and quantitative animal science.

A major focus is understanding variation in the rumen microbiome and how microbial communities and their functional potential relate to economically and environmentally important cattle traits. My current work investigates interactions between the rumen microbiome, enteric methane emissions, feed utilisation and milk production.

I use and develop computational approaches for analysing large-scale sequencing and phenotypic datasets, with particular expertise in metagenomics, long- and short-read sequencing, genome-resolved metagenomics, microbial functional analysis and reproducible bioinformatics workflows.

Another part of my research interests lies in connecting microbiome and phenotypic information with cattle genetics and breeding, particularly for traits related to methane emissions, feed efficiency, sustainability and production.

I also develop research software and workflows, including MUFFIN, a reproducible metagenomics workflow, and PANKEGG, a platform for exploring microbial genome annotation, taxonomy, quality and metabolic pathways.

My research contributes to more sustainable livestock production by improving our understanding of biological variation in enteric methane emissions, feed utilisation and production efficiency. In particular, I am interested in how microbiome, phenotypic and genetic information can be combined to better understand and ultimately reduce the environmental footprint of cattle production.

I have taught and contributed to courses, workshops and scientific training activities in several countries, covering topics including bioinformatics, programming, metagenomics, sequencing data analysis and reproducible computational workflows.

My teaching is strongly hands-on, with an emphasis on helping researchers understand both the biological questions behind an analysis and the computational approaches required to answer them.

PhD, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), 2025

Doctoral research focused on bioinformatics and metagenomics, particularly the analysis of the rumen microbiome using short- and long-read sequencing and genome-resolved metagenomic approaches.