Maria Skødt Kroier: Exploring the link between nutrition and pig health
Maria Skødt Kroier, 28, is a third-year PhD student in the Nutrition pillar of the PIG-PARADIGM project. Throughout her PhD, she has gained valuable experience managing her own research while contributing to a deeper understanding of the interactions between nutrition, microbiome, and pig health.
One of the highlights of her PhD journey has been taking responsibility for her own research project.
"One of the major highlights of my PhD has been learning how to manage my own research project and successfully plan and execute two animal experiments."
Alongside developing her research skills, Maria has strengthened her laboratory competencies, learned to conduct statistical analyses in R, and gained experience presenting her work and building professional networks. A particularly rewarding part of the project has been the opportunity to combine research with creativity.
"Creating illustrations for my own PhD project as well as for the PIG-PARADIGM project has been a dream come true."
Maria's research focuses on how protein and essential amino acid supplementation affect pig health and the gut microbiome.
"This project represents an important step toward understanding how protein and essential amino acid supplementation affects pig health, both directly and indirectly through changes in microbiota composition and microbial metabolite production."
She sees her work as an important contribution to one of PIG-PARADIGM's central goals: understanding the mechanisms behind host-microbiome interactions. Looking ahead, Maria hopes her findings will help build knowledge that can support healthier piglets and more sustainable pig production.
"I hope it will provide fundamental knowledge about the interactions between dietary protein and essential amino acid levels, the host, and the microbiome."
As she completes the final stage of her PhD, Maria is preparing for her next milestone and expects to submit her thesis in 2027.