Josefa Hillmer is a Bioinformatics Engineer and PhD student in Bioengineering Sciences at Universidad de O’Higgins. Her research sits at the intersection of microbial genomics, systems biology, and evolutionary modeling, with a focus on how microbial communities adapt across environmental and disease-associated contexts.

She works with metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data from marine and intestinal microbiomes, developing integrative frameworks based on MOFA, Pareto archetype analysis, evolutionary game theory, and selection analyses. Her current research aims to understand how chronic inflammation and ecological pressures shape microbial activity, adaptation, and community structure in conditions such as Crohn’s disease and colorectal cancer.