In this Fellow Friday, we meet Marcela Emilie Hansen, our DARA fellow and PhD researcher at the DTU - Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Her research explores how specific carbohydrates derived from plant foods and agricultural side streams could support gut microbes associated with healthy child growth. Marcela is working to better understand how pectin-derived glycans can stimulate Segatella copri and other growth-associated gut microbes, addressing one of the challenges linked to child malnutrition: an immature gut microbiome. But her PhD is more than science. In the interview, Marcela shares what sparked her interest in this field, what excites her about bringing bioscience, biotechnology and nutrition together, and what being part of the DARA community means to her.