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Ophelia Shalini Venturelli

Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering

Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations


Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering · 2024 - Present Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering
Associate Professor in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology · 2025 - Present Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Basic Science Departments

Recent News Items


Published September 25, 2024
Four Newly Promoted or Hired Faculty Named Langford Lecturers
Published September 23, 2024
Ophelia Venturelli Wants to Engineer Our Guts

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Recent Scholarly Works


A data-driven modeling framework for mapping genotypes to synthetic microbial community functions.

Journal article Cell systems · July 2026 Synthetic microbial communities offer valuable insights into the mechanisms that govern community functions, and they can be designed to achieve desired functions in order to address societal challenges in precision medicine and agriculture. Existing compu ... Full text Cite

Physics-constrained neural ordinary differential equation models to discover and predict microbial community dynamics.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · March 2026 Microbial communities play essential roles in shaping ecosystem functions and predictive modeling frameworks are crucial for understanding, controlling, and harnessing their properties. Competition and cross-feeding of metabolites drives microbiome dynamic ... Full text Cite

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community.

Journal article Nature communications · October 2025 Population cycles are prevalent in ecosystems and play key roles in determining their functions. While multiple mechanisms have been theoretically shown to generate population cycles, there are limited examples of mutualisms driving self-sustained oscillat ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Training Grant

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEMentor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2026 - 2031

A multi-scale systems biology framework for understanding and engineering the human gut microbiome

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute of General Medical Sciences · 2017 - 2030

Dietary Fiber-Microbiome Interactions: Elucidating Mechanisms to Suppress Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms in the Human Gut

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 2025 - 2029

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Education


California Institute of Technology · 2013 Ph.D.

External Links


Lab Website