With the vast quantity of data being generated by highthroughput experimental techniques, new opportunities are arising to integrate theoretical and computational approaches with experiments. Potential synergies include designing hypothesis-driven experiments based on the results of modeled scenarios, or using modeling as a tool to mechanistically interpret the results of high-throughput experiments. In the bacterial field, there is currently a major initiative to integrate genomic sequencing data with computational modeling, in order to predict the function of individual bacterial strains and whole bacterial communities.