Advancing the science of human nutrition

Professor Cathie Martin MBE FRS

John Innes Centre and University of East Anglia, UK

Cathie is a group leader at the John Innes Centre and Professor at the University of East Anglia. Her interests span from fundamental to applied plant science. She researches the relationship between food and health and how crops can be fortified to improve diets and address the global challenge of escalating chronic disease. This work has involved linking leading clinical and epidemiological researchers with plant breeders and metabolic engineers to develop scientific understanding of how diet can help to maintain health, promote healthy ageing and reduce the risk of chronic disease. Cathie is also involved in genetic screens to identify crops that lack toxins that cause nutritional diseases and has recently initiated a collaborative project with China to research Chinese medicinal plants.

Cathie was Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell (2008-2014) and is now an Associate Editor for Plant Physiology. She is a member of EMBO, AAAS, a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 2013 she was awarded an MBE for services to Plant Biotechnology.

Professor Julie Lovegrove

University of Reading, UK

Professor Julie Lovegrove is Hugh Sinclair Professor of Human Nutrition, Director of the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, Deputy Director of the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research and Chair of the University Research Ethics Committee at the University of Reading. Professor Lovegrove is a Registered Nutritionist with over 32 years of research experience in studying the role of nutrition on cardiovascular diseases, with focus on the metabolic impact of dietary fats, plant phytochemicals, nutrient-gene interactions and personalised nutrition. Her work, which includes over 300 scientific publications, has made a major contribution in establishing the relevance of dietary fat quality to the development and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases.

Professor Lovegrove serves on several external committees: she is Deputy Chair of UK Government's Scientific Advisory Committee for Nutrition (SACN), Chair of SACN'S Framework for Evaluation of Evidence subgroup and previously on SACN's 'Saturated fats and Health' and 'Carbohydrates and Health' working groups. She is a member of the Medical Research Council's Population and Systems Medical Board. She was President of The Nutrition Society, UK and Ireland (2019-2023), Deputy Chair for the Association for Nutrition (AfN) Council (2016-2019), and Chair of the AfN Accreditation Committee (2011-2019). She was awarded Fellow of the AfN in 2014 and the British Nutrition Foundation Prize in 2022.

Dr Sarah Berry

King's College London, UK

Sarah Berry is a Reader in Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London and Chief Scientist at ZOE Ltd. Her research interests relate to the influence of dietary components on cardiometabolic disease risk, with particular focus on personalised nutrition, postprandial lipid metabolism and food and fat structure. Since commencing her research career at King’s, she has been the academic leader for more than 30 human nutrition studies in cardio-metabolic health.

As the Chief Scientist at ZOE Ltd, she leads the PREDICT programme of research, assessing the genetic, metabolic, metagenomic, and meal-dependent effects on metabolic responses to food in over 100,000 people. This research is at the forefront of developments in personalised nutrition and is forging a new way forward in the design and implementation of large-scale remote nutrition research studies integrating novel technologies, citizen science and AI.

Sarah is also co-host of the free weekly ‘ZOE Science & Nutrition’ Podcast (No 1 in all UK Podcasts; May 2023), with over 10 million downloads, where she translates the latest evidence-based research across a variety of topics into useful advice for the general population.

Professor Giles Yeo MBE

University of Cambridge

Giles Yeo got his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge in 1998, after which he joined the lab of Prof Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, working on the genetics of severe human obesity.

Giles is now a Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology and programme leader at the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit in Cambridge and his research currently focuses on the influence of genes on feeding behaviour and body-weight. In addition, he is a graduate tutor and fellow of Wolfson College, and Honorary President of the British Dietetic Association.

Giles is also a broadcaster and author, presenting science documentaries for the BBC, and hosts a podcast called 'Dr Giles Yeo Chews The Fat'. His first book 'Gene Eating' was published in December 2018, and his second book 'Why Calories Don't Count' came out in June 2021.

Giles was appointed an MBE in the Queen's 2020 birthday honours for services to 'Research, Communication and Engagement'. He won the Society for Endocrinology Medal in 2022.

Professor Lindsay Hall

Quadram Institute, UK and Technical University of Munich, Germany

Lindsay Hall is Chair of Intestinal Microbiome at the Technical University of Munich. She also holds a group leader position at the Quadram Institute, UK and is a Wellcome Investigator. Her group's research focus involves defining microbe/microbiota and diet interactions during the early life developmental window.

Professor Hall obtained a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow, a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Cambridge (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), and was a postdoctoral fellow at University College Cork, Ireland (APC Microbiome Institute). She returned to the UK to take up a Senior Lectureship at the University of East Anglia before moving to Quadram at the end of 2015.

Dr Sarah Berry

King's College London, UK

Sarah Berry is a Reader in Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London and Chief Scientist at ZOE Ltd. Her research interests relate to the influence of dietary components on cardiometabolic disease risk, with particular focus on personalised nutrition, postprandial lipid metabolism and food and fat structure. Since commencing her research career at King’s, she has been the academic leader for more than 30 human nutrition studies in cardio-metabolic health.

As the Chief Scientist at ZOE Ltd, she leads the PREDICT programme of research, assessing the genetic, metabolic, metagenomic, and meal-dependent effects on metabolic responses to food in over 100,000 people. This research is at the forefront of developments in personalised nutrition and is forging a new way forward in the design and implementation of large-scale remote nutrition research studies integrating novel technologies, citizen science and AI.

Sarah is also co-host of the free weekly ‘ZOE Science & Nutrition’ Podcast (No 1 in all UK Podcasts; May 2023), with over 10 million downloads, where she translates the latest evidence-based research across a variety of topics into useful advice for the general population.

Professor Giles Yeo MBE

University of Cambridge

Giles Yeo got his PhD in molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge in 1998, after which he joined the lab of Prof Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, working on the genetics of severe human obesity.

Giles is now a Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology and programme leader at the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit in Cambridge and his research currently focuses on the influence of genes on feeding behaviour and body-weight. In addition, he is a graduate tutor and fellow of Wolfson College, and Honorary President of the British Dietetic Association.

Giles is also a broadcaster and author, presenting science documentaries for the BBC, and hosts a podcast called 'Dr Giles Yeo Chews The Fat'. His first book 'Gene Eating' was published in December 2018, and his second book 'Why Calories Don't Count' came out in June 2021.

Giles was appointed an MBE in the Queen's 2020 birthday honours for services to 'Research, Communication and Engagement'. He won the Society for Endocrinology Medal in 2022.

Professor Lindsay Hall

Quadram Institute, UK and Technical University of Munich, Germany

Lindsay Hall is Chair of Intestinal Microbiome at the Technical University of Munich. She also holds a group leader position at the Quadram Institute, UK and is a Wellcome Investigator. Her group's research focus involves defining microbe/microbiota and diet interactions during the early life developmental window.

Professor Hall obtained a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow, a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Cambridge (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), and was a postdoctoral fellow at University College Cork, Ireland (APC Microbiome Institute). She returned to the UK to take up a Senior Lectureship at the University of East Anglia before moving to Quadram at the end of 2015.

Professor Marc-Emmanuel Dumas FRSC

Imperial College London

Marc-Emmanuel Dumas is Chair in Systems Medicine, jointly appointed between the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction and the National Heart and Lung Institute. He is head of the Section of Biomolecular Medicine, which hosts state-of-the-art equipment dedicated to metabolomics, crystallisation science and tissue culture. He founded and is director of Imperial's Microbiome Network, a cross-faculty multidisciplinary network of excellence made of over 60 research groups to consolidate research, teaching and public engagement activities around the microbiome.

Research led by Professor Dumas targets innovative metabolomics approaches to better understand the key challenges in the integrative control of metabolism, blending genomics and microbiomics in systems medicine. He focusses mostly on the role of the microbiome (but not limited to) in metabolic and cardiorespiratory diseases as well as in chronic inflammation, including neuroinflammation, and certain types of cancers.

Since September 2020, he has been an investigator at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and group leader at UMR8199 in Lille, France. He is co-Director of the Imperial-University of Lille-CNRS International Research Project in Integrative Metabolism which was launched in 2023. He also holds an Adjunct Professorship at McGill University's Genome Innovation Centre and the Department of Human Genetics in Montréal, Canada.

Dr Maria Traka

Quadram Institute, UK

Maria Traka is the deputy Head of Food & Nutrition National Bioscience Research Infrastructure (F&N-NBRI), based at Quadram Institute Bioscience. F&N-NBRI is a national coordinating 'hub' in food, nutrition and health and the leading national provider of new and continuously updated data, tools and services vital for public health, research and innovation. The Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (also known as McCance and Widdowson data), the food bioactives composition datasets, and the associated tools are used by academia, government and industry and are essential for high-quality research on relationships between diet and health and delivery of key national strategic aims that support adoption of healthier and sustainable diets.

Dr Traka's research focus is understanding the role of plant-rich diets in improving health. She has an active interest in using data-driven approaches in personalized nutrition, prevention of non-communicable diseases, and the importance of the microbiome in modulating response to complex diets.

Dr Traka's previous work focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms mediated by plant-derived bioactives leading to cancer prevention. As a Senior Research Scientist at the Quadram Institute, she became increasingly interested the role of cruciferous-rich diets, such as those high in broccoli, in maintaining a healthy metabolism.

Dr Jenny Walton

HarvestPlus

Jenny Walton is Head of Commercialization and Scaling at HarvestPlus. She is a registered nutritionist with over 25 years’ experience working on food system transformation from the food industry and latterly food research organizations.

Jenny currently works for the International Food Policy Research Institute (CGIAR), with the HarvestPlus global team in Washington DC. Her role is to develop and lead the strategy that will embed biofortified seeds, grains and foods into the food system through innovative technologies. Working with the public and private sector, her objective is to find the incentives to commercialize biofortification and work in partnerships to overcome barriers to scale.

Dr Jenny Walton

HarvestPlus

Jenny Walton is Head of Commercialization and Scaling at HarvestPlus. She is a registered nutritionist with over 25 years’ experience working on food system transformation from the food industry and latterly food research organizations.

Jenny currently works for the International Food Policy Research Institute (CGIAR), with the HarvestPlus global team in Washington DC. Her role is to develop and lead the strategy that will embed biofortified seeds, grains and foods into the food system through innovative technologies. Working with the public and private sector, her objective is to find the incentives to commercialize biofortification and work in partnerships to overcome barriers to scale.

Professor Marc-Emmanuel Dumas FRSC

Imperial College London

Marc-Emmanuel Dumas is Chair in Systems Medicine, jointly appointed between the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction and the National Heart and Lung Institute. He is head of the Section of Biomolecular Medicine, which hosts state-of-the-art equipment dedicated to metabolomics, crystallisation science and tissue culture. He founded and is director of Imperial's Microbiome Network, a cross-faculty multidisciplinary network of excellence made of over 60 research groups to consolidate research, teaching and public engagement activities around the microbiome.

Research led by Professor Dumas targets innovative metabolomics approaches to better understand the key challenges in the integrative control of metabolism, blending genomics and microbiomics in systems medicine. He focusses mostly on the role of the microbiome (but not limited to) in metabolic and cardiorespiratory diseases as well as in chronic inflammation, including neuroinflammation, and certain types of cancers.

Since September 2020, he has been an investigator at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and group leader at UMR8199 in Lille, France. He is co-Director of the Imperial-University of Lille-CNRS International Research Project in Integrative Metabolism which was launched in 2023. He also holds an Adjunct Professorship at McGill University's Genome Innovation Centre and the Department of Human Genetics in Montréal, Canada.

Dr Maria Traka

Quadram Institute, UK

Maria Traka is the deputy Head of Food & Nutrition National Bioscience Research Infrastructure (F&N-NBRI), based at Quadram Institute Bioscience. F&N-NBRI is a national coordinating 'hub' in food, nutrition and health and the leading national provider of new and continuously updated data, tools and services vital for public health, research and innovation. The Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (also known as McCance and Widdowson data), the food bioactives composition datasets, and the associated tools are used by academia, government and industry and are essential for high-quality research on relationships between diet and health and delivery of key national strategic aims that support adoption of healthier and sustainable diets.

Dr Traka's research focus is understanding the role of plant-rich diets in improving health. She has an active interest in using data-driven approaches in personalized nutrition, prevention of non-communicable diseases, and the importance of the microbiome in modulating response to complex diets.

Dr Traka's previous work focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms mediated by plant-derived bioactives leading to cancer prevention. As a Senior Research Scientist at the Quadram Institute, she became increasingly interested the role of cruciferous-rich diets, such as those high in broccoli, in maintaining a healthy metabolism.

Professor Louise Dye

University of Leeds

Louise is Chartered Health Psychologist at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the effects of nutrition on cognitive function, health and wellbeing and on how to encourage and sustain dietary behaviour change at individual, organisational and societal levels. Her work on breakfast and cognition has highlighted the importance of diet in vulnerable groups, for example children in food insecurity.

Louise chairs the BBSRC Strategic Advisory Panel for Biosciences for an Integrated Understanding of Health. She is past President of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe and is current Co-Chair of ILSI Global and Associate Editor of Nutritional Neuroscience.

She leads a work-package on increasing dietary fibre intake in low income consumers in the UKRI funded H3 project and is co-Chair of the health and wellbeing pillar of the Leeds Food Strategy for Leeds City Council.

Professor John C Mathers

Newcastle University

John Mathers is Professor of Human Nutrition in Newcastle University. He was an undergraduate in Newcastle University, then undertook postgraduate training in University of Cambridge. After a short time in University of Edinburgh, he returned to Newcastle University where he established the BSc in Food and Human Nutrition degree programme and the Human Nutrition Research Centre that he directed from 1994 until 2022.

His major research interests are in understanding how eating patterns influence risk of age-related diseases including diabetes, dementia and cancer. This includes studies of the underlying mechanisms and investigation of lifestyle-based interventions to reduce disease risk and to enhance healthy ageing. He has had a long-term interest in the effects of dietary fibre on function and health.

Among his external roles, John was President of the Nutrition Society and has served on grant panels and research strategy boards for various funding organisations including the MRC, BBSRC, ESRC, WCRF and others. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the British Nutrition Foundation, a Trustee of the Rank Prize Funds and he chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Joint Programming Initiative, a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life. Since 2019, John has been Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition.

Dr Tony Goldstone

Imperial College London

Tony Goldstone is a Clinical Reader (Associate Professor) in PsychoNeuroEndocrinology at the Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London. He is also a Fellow of The Obesity Society.

Dr Goldstone attended medical school at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, and obtained his PhD from Imperial College. His clinical experimental medicine research uses multi-modal phenotyping, including functional neuroimaging, to examine body-brain interactions in regulation of eating and addictive behaviours, including appetitive gut hormone administration and bariatric surgery.

Dr Goldstone is an adult Consultant Endocrinologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, running a specialist clinic for genetic obesity.

Professor Louise Dye

University of Leeds

Louise is Chartered Health Psychologist at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the effects of nutrition on cognitive function, health and wellbeing and on how to encourage and sustain dietary behaviour change at individual, organisational and societal levels. Her work on breakfast and cognition has highlighted the importance of diet in vulnerable groups, for example children in food insecurity.

Louise chairs the BBSRC Strategic Advisory Panel for Biosciences for an Integrated Understanding of Health. She is past President of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe and is current Co-Chair of ILSI Global and Associate Editor of Nutritional Neuroscience.

She leads a work-package on increasing dietary fibre intake in low income consumers in the UKRI funded H3 project and is co-Chair of the health and wellbeing pillar of the Leeds Food Strategy for Leeds City Council.

Professor John C Mathers

Newcastle University

John Mathers is Professor of Human Nutrition in Newcastle University. He was an undergraduate in Newcastle University, then undertook postgraduate training in University of Cambridge. After a short time in University of Edinburgh, he returned to Newcastle University where he established the BSc in Food and Human Nutrition degree programme and the Human Nutrition Research Centre that he directed from 1994 until 2022.

His major research interests are in understanding how eating patterns influence risk of age-related diseases including diabetes, dementia and cancer. This includes studies of the underlying mechanisms and investigation of lifestyle-based interventions to reduce disease risk and to enhance healthy ageing. He has had a long-term interest in the effects of dietary fibre on function and health.

Among his external roles, John was President of the Nutrition Society and has served on grant panels and research strategy boards for various funding organisations including the MRC, BBSRC, ESRC, WCRF and others. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the British Nutrition Foundation, a Trustee of the Rank Prize Funds and he chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Joint Programming Initiative, a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life. Since 2019, John has been Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition.

Dr Tony Goldstone

Imperial College London

Tony Goldstone is a Clinical Reader (Associate Professor) in PsychoNeuroEndocrinology at the Division of Psychiatry, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London. He is also a Fellow of The Obesity Society.

Dr Goldstone attended medical school at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, and obtained his PhD from Imperial College. His clinical experimental medicine research uses multi-modal phenotyping, including functional neuroimaging, to examine body-brain interactions in regulation of eating and addictive behaviours, including appetitive gut hormone administration and bariatric surgery.

Dr Goldstone is an adult Consultant Endocrinologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, running a specialist clinic for genetic obesity.

Dr John O'Brien

The Food Observatory

John O'Brien is a Visiting Professor and Chair of the Advisory Board at the Nutrition Innovation Centre for Food & Health (NICHE) at Ulster University and Director of The Food Observatory, UK. He is a former CEO of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and former Deputy Head of the Nestlé Research Centre, Lausanne.

His experience includes leadership positions in the food industry (Groupe Danone, France and Nestle, Switzerland) and several academic positions. He was Founding Editor of the leading journal Trends in Food Science & Technology in 1990. He is currently the Interim Chair of the Food Standards Agency Science Council, Vice-chair of the non-executive board at Campden BRI, and the Editor of Trends in Food Science & Technology.

He has a PhD from University College, Cork and an MSc in Toxicology from the University of Surrey. He is a fellow of the Institute of Food Science & Technology and of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and is a former Trustee of the Institute of Food Technologists Feeding Tomorrow Foundation.

Professor Tim Spector FMedSci

King's College London and Zoe Health

Tim Spector is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London and honorary consultant Physician at Guys and St Thomas' Hospitals. He is also an expert in personalised medicine and the gut microbiome and started the famous UK Twin Registry in 1993. Through his work he has been given many awards and prizes, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Academy of Medical sciences. He has published over 900 scientific papers and is ranked by Google as being in the top 120 most cited scientists in the world. He has published four popular books (including the best-selling Diet Myth and recently Spoon-Fed), he writes health blogs which have been read by ten million people, and appears regularly on the TV and media round the world.

Dr Emma Williams

Nutritionists in Industry

Emma Williams is a food and nutrition scientist with a First-Class Honours degree in Food Technology and Management and a PhD in Human Nutrition, both from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. Her doctoral research delved into the interplay between food and nutrients in mood enhancement, towards the development of functional food products for the consumer.

With over two decades of multifaceted experience across food manufacturing, retail, diverse research domains (consumer insights, public health), academia, and science communication, Dr Williams excels in translating intricate scientific concepts into actionable insights. Her previous roles include strategic consultancy, retail nutrition (Waitrose), and science communications (British Nutrition Foundation), as well as serving as the Editor of the Nutrition Bulletin journal. She has also been involved in hospital-based clinical research, and now works as an independent consultant. Her expertise aids food, nutrition, and agricultural entities in fulfilling their strategic needs.

Dr Williams is a member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) Special Interest Group in Food and Nutrition. Emma also serves as a Scientific Advisory Board member for the EU Horizon2020 WELCOME2 Project, showcasing her commitment to driving innovation. As the current Chair of Nutritionists in Industry (NII), Dr Williams represents the collective interests of over 150 industry nutritionists in the UK. She ensures their professional growth through specialised industry events and amplifies their voice as a spokesperson.

Henry Dimbleby MBE

LEON and the Sustainable Restaurant Association

Henry Dimbleby is the author of Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape. Published in March 2023, this analysis of the food system – how it is malfunctioning and what to do about it – builds on the work he did in the independent National Food Strategy, described by Prue Leith “the best government document that’s ever come out”.

Dimbleby is the co-founder and former CEO of Leon restaurants. He also co-founded the Sustainable Restaurant Association and the charity Chefs in Schools, which brings restaurant chefs into school kitchens.

In 2013, he co-authored The School Food Plan, a blueprint for government setting out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. It resulted in the introduction of free school meals for all children up to the age of eight, and cooking lessons being made obligatory for all children up to 14.

From 2018 to 2023, Dimbleby was the lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, serving under Michael Gove, Theresa Villiers, George Eustice, Ranil Jayawardene and Thérèse Coffey. He has also advised the Labour party on how to improve the sustainability and security of the food system.

Henry previously worked as a Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company, where he worked with businesses on strategy, performance improvement and organisational design. Before that he worked as a journalist at The Daily Telegraph and a chef at the Michelin-starred Four Seasons Inn on the Park.