The Steering Committee will meet twice a year with a target of 20 members in attendance. The principal role of Steering Committee meetings will be to discuss themes of funding calls and to decide on the content for meetings and workshops whilst identifying individuals or companies who can lead in organising these events.
We have consciously drawn on collaborators and colleagues from the geographical South and North to facilitate levelling up and advancing industrial collaboration throughout the UK.
Minutes of meetings will be available online to INFORM Hub members.
Steering Committee Members:
In addition to Dr Gemma Walton, Professor Kieran Tuohy, Professor Glenn Gibson, Dr Neil Wil and Dr Sue Gatenby from INFORM’s core team, the following academic/industry-based individuals complete the Hub Steering Committee.
From Academia:
Dr Phillip Allsopp – Senior Lecturer in Human Nutrition, University of Ulster. Areas of interest/expertise include the immunological impact of plant stanols and gut-bone health.
Email: pjallsopp@ulster.ac.uk
Dr Philip Burnet – Professor of Neuroscience, University of Oxford. Areas of Interest/expertise include gut bacteria and brain function.
Email: phil.burnet@psych.ox.ac.uk
Dr Shauna Burke – Associate Professor in Exercise and Health Psychology, University of Leeds. Areas of Interest/expertise include sports and nutrition and health and psychology. Shauna is also co-lead of InterActiveUoL,
Email: Shauna.burke@leeds.ac.uk
Professor Helen Griffiths
– Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Swansea University. Areas of interest/expertise include Nutrients in health and ageing, mitochondria & energy metabolism.
Email: h.r.griffiths@swansea.ac.uk
Professor Karen Birch – Executive Dean & Processor Exercise Science, University of Leeds. Areas of interest/expertise include Endothelial integrity, female reproductive hormones, exercise & CVD.
Email: k.m.birch@leeds.ac.uk
Dr James Kinross – Reader in Colorectal Surgery and Consultant Surgeon, Imperial College London. Areas of interest/expertise are the gut microbiome and colorectal cancer and how it may be engineered to improve operative outcomes. He James is a Co-I on the Horizon 2020 funded GROWTH consortium studying how the microbiome influences anastomotic healing and surgical gut health and cofounded the International Cancer Microbiome Consortium.
Email: j.kinross@imperial.ac.uk
Dr Caroline Childs – Associate Professor, University of Southampton. Areas of interest/expertise include diet and its links with immune function, inflammatory status, immunosenescence and the gut microbiome.
Email: c.e.childs@soton.ac.uk
Dr Mark Hopkins – Associate Professor in Nutritional Physiology, University of Leeds. Areas of interest/expertise include the relationships between body composition, energy expenditure and appetite. The impact of exercise on appetite control, and the biological and behavioural compensatory mechanisms that resist diet and exercise-induced weight loss.
Email: m.hopkins@leeds.ac.uk
Professor Anne Kiltie – Friends of ANCHOL Clinical Chair in Oncology, University of Aberdeen. Areas of interest/expertise include dietary fibre manipulation and impact on responses to radiotherapy; Dietary fibre and the gut microbiota via histone deacetylase inhibitors.
Email: anne.kiltie@abdn.ac.uk
Dr Emma Wightman – Associate Professor, Northumbria University. Emma is the Manager of the interdisciplinary research group NUTRAN which draws upon the expertise of six disciplines; Brain, Sleep, Sport, Vascular, Biology and Omics. Areas of interest/expertise include cognitive performance.
Email: emma.l.wightman@northumbria.ac.uk
Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait – Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia. Sue has served as chair and adviser on several national and international advisory committees. Areas of interest/expertise include mineral metabolism and requirements in humans.
Email: s.fairweather-tait@uea.ac.uk
Professor Chris Gill – Professor of Digestive Health, University of Ulster. Chris is thematic leader for “Phytochemicals and gut microflora in health and diseases” within the Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE). Areas of interest/expertise include models of immune stimulatory effects of probiotics.
Email: c.gill@ulster.ac.uk
Dr Jonathan Swann
– Professor of Biomolecular Medicine, University of Southampton. Jonathan is on the editorial board for the journal Microbiome and sits on numerous expert panels relating to the gut microbiota. Areas of interest/expertise include metabolomics.
Email: j.swann@soton.ac.uk
Dr Frederique Ponchel – Associate Professor, University of Leeds. Areas of interest/expertise include translational research in immune mediated inflammatory disease.
Email: f.ponchel@leeds.ac.uk
Dr Emilie Combet-Aspray – Professor of Human Nutrition (Medicine), University of Glasgow. Areas of interest/expertise include food, nutrition and the life cycle.
Email: emilie.combetaspray@glasgow.ac.uk
From Industry:
Imran Afzal – Open Innovation, Mondelez. Areas of interest/expertise include open innovation endeavours in the food and beverage space.
Email: imran.afzal@mdlz.com
Dr Oliver Hasselwander – Scouting and Development Leader, Microbiome and Technical Fellow, International Flavours and Fragrances. Areas of interest/expertise; Oliver has had scientific and technical oversight and project leadership for several microbiome-related innovation projects.
Email: oliver.hasselwander@iff.com
Andrea Bertocco – Director Scientific Affairs, Herbalife. Areas of interest/expertise include personalisation, leveraging functional foods, key active components and novel ingredients. Andrea is a current member of ILSI, Giant Leaps, Smart Proteins, EU4Algae and Food Supplement Europe.
Email: andreab@Herbalife.com
Dr Thomas Hutton – Global Nutritional Leader, Cargill. Tom leads Gargill’s Global Nutrition Science team, where he overseas a team of experts focused on bringing nutritional science to Cargill’s food and feed product development efforts.
Email: thomas_hutton@cargill.com
Symone Pyle – Science and Technology Manager, Unilever. Areas of interest/expertise include discovering how diet and biotics can unlock health and wellbeing benefits.
Email: simone.pyle@unilever.com
Dr Richard Day – VP Medical Affairs and Clinical Development, ADM. Richard is is responsible for the design and delivery of all clinical research across ADM’s Health & Wellness business, with a particular focus on microbiome solutions.
Email: richard.day@adm.com
Jon Farrimond – Principle Scientist, Suntory Beverage and Food. Areas of interest/experience include ngineering and neuroscience. Jon has been developing and running in vitro and in vivo (human) studies for ten years with an excellent track record.
Email: jonathan.farrimond@suntory.com
Sonalika Jain – Research Partner, Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL). Areas of interest/expertise include fueling innovation and growth in Food R&D by building industry and academia relations, and leveraging external partnerships.
Email: sonalika.jain@rssl.com
Jessica van Harsselaar – Manager Nutrition Science, Beneo. Areas of interest/expertise include food science with molecular biological focuse.
Email: jessica.vanHarselaar@beneo.com