Dr. sc. med. Michele Serra (PhD)

Dr. Michele Serra is Principal Investigator and Research Manager in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Clinical Nutrition at the University Hospital Zurich, where he is establishing a research program in Ingestive Phenotyping for Metabolic Medicine.

He received an MSc in Biology, with a focus on Genetics, Medical Biology, and Zoology, from the Technical University of Munich, and an MSc in Life Sciences with a specialization in Nutrition and Health from the Bern University of Applied Sciences. He completed his PhD in Medical Sciences at the University of Zurich.

Dr. Serra’s research investigates how human ingestive behaviour can be quantitatively characterized and used to better understand metabolic physiology and individual responses to treatment. His group develops high-resolution methods to measure how eating and drinking behaviour unfolds over time and combines these behavioural phenotypes with endocrine, metabolic, clinical, and multi-omics measurements, including gut microbiome metagenomics and metatranscriptomics.

Current research focuses particularly on obesity and metabolic disease, appetite and gut–brain signalling, bariatric and metabolic surgery, anti-obesity pharmacotherapy, and the potential use of ingestive phenotypes as early markers of treatment response. In 2026, Dr. Serra received a New Investigator Travel Award from the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior for his work investigating ingestive microstructure as a behavioural marker of response to semaglutide. 

A central goal of his research program is to improve the translation of ingestive-behaviour research into clinically meaningful measurements. This work also led him to co-found Obios GmbH, where he serves as CEO and works to translate research hardware and software developed for ingestive phenotyping into standardized tools that can be used by other research groups and, ultimately, in clinical practice.

Beyond his research and translational activities, Dr. Serra is an elected voting member of both the Faculty of Medicine and the Senate of the University of Zurich, where he represents and advocates for the interests of early-career researchers.