M. P. Francino studied Biology at the National University of Mexico and then pursued graduate studies at the University of Rochester (New York), where she obtained her Ph.D. with her research on analyses of rates and patterns of DNA sequence evolution in bacteria and primates. Next, she conducted postdoctoral research in bacterial genetics as an EMBO Fellow at the University of Paris. She served as Research Scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute for five years, and then was Head of their Evolutionary Genomics Program from 2007 to 2009. Since 2009, she is a Senior Scientist at the Genomics and Health Department of FISABIO-Public Health in Valencia, and has been Head of the Department since 2012. Her current research focuses on the metagenomic analysis of human microbiome communities, and, in particular, on understanding how the gut microbiota develops and changes throughout our lifetime. Work in her research group studies this process by analyzing the taxonomic composition, coding capabilities and gene expression patterns of the gut microbial community at different life stages, as well as the relationships of these features with diet and health.