Mèlanie Valentina Bénard is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam University Medical Center. She is a medical doctor (MD), having graduated in 2017 from the Amsterdam University Medical Center, with an additional bachelors degree in Psychology (BSc). She has worked as a clinical doctor in the department of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Noordwest Ziekenhuisgroep. Her research interests include fecal microbiota transplantation as a treatment for ulcerative colitis, bacterial viability, and stool donor selection. She received an innovation grant in 2021 from Amsterdam Gastroenterology Endocrinology Metabolism (AGEM) to work on assessments of the bacterial viability of anaerobes.