Speakers' Biographies
Prof. Jeremy K. Nicholson
Head of Department of Bio-molecular Medicine Imperial College London.
Professor Nicholson obtained his BSc from Liverpool University (1977) and his PhD from London University (1980) in Biochemistry working on the application of analytical electron microscopy and the applications of energy dispersive X Ray microanalysis in molecular toxicology and inorganic biochemistry. He was appointed Lecturer in Chemistry (Birkbeck College, London University, 1981-83) and Lecturer in Experimental Pathology at The London School of Pharmacy (1983-85) returning to Birkbeck as a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, then Reader (1989) and Professor of Biological Chemistry (1992). In 1998 he became Head of Biological Chemistry at Imperial College London and since 2006 he is the Head of the Department of Biomolecular Medicine (2006) at Imperial.
Professor Nicholson is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers and many other articles/patents on the development and application of novel spectroscopic and chemometric approaches to the investigation of disturbed metabolic and physico-chemical processes. His research has been recognised by awards such as: The Royal Society of Chemistry Silver (1992) and Gold (1997) Medals for Analytical Chemistry; UK Chromatographic Society Jubilee Silver Medal (1994); Pfizer Prize for Chemical and Medicinal Technology (2002); Royal Society of Chemistry medal for Chemical Biology (2003); the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Lectureship (2008) and the Pfizer Global Research Prize for Chemistry (2006). His research interests include: biological NMR spectroscopy, novel LC-MS and chemometric approaches to bioanalysis, metabolic modelling and studies leading to the understanding the molecular basis of disease and toxic processes, and extended genome/superorganism biochemistry. Professor
Nicholson currently holds honorary professorships at 8 Universities outside the UK, and is on the editorial board of 10 international science journals including Molecular Systems Biology and is also the Consulting Editor of the Journal of Proteome Research. He is a consultant to many pharmaceutical/healthcare companies in the UK, Europe and the USA and is a founder director of Metabometrix, an Imperial College spin-off company specializing in molecular phenotyping, clinical diagnostics and toxicological screening via metabonomics and metabolomics
Prof. Graham Dockray
Graham Dockray is Professor of Physiology at the University of Liverpool and was Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 2006 to 2008. He attended the University of Nottingham (BSc 1st class Hons, 1967; Ph.D., 1971), and was a Fogarty International Fellow of the NIH at the VA Hospital Los Angeles and UCLA. He has been Professor of Physiology at the University of Liverpool since 1982. His research focuses on the biology of entero-endocrine cells, the control of epithelial organization and signaling from gut to brain particularly the integrative role of vagal afferent neurons in the control of food intake. He is a Founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1998), an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (2002) and a Fellow of the Royal Society (2004).
Prof. Jens Hoslt
Jens Holst, MD, PhD, is a professor of medical physiology at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. He is also the vice chairman of the board of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen and chairman of the Faculty’s Research Center for Diabetes and Obesity.Professor Holst received his medical degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1970 and the Doctor of Medical Sciences degree in 1978. Professor Holst’s research has been focused on the regulatory peptides of the pancreas and gut. This has included the importance of the peptides in the regulation of the functions of the GI tract and metabolism, with particular focus on blood glucose and appetite regulation, obesity, and diabetes. He has especially conducted research on the role of incretin hormones of the gut (GLP-1 and GIP).Professor Holst has written more than 1000 full publications (currently 804 in PubMed), including original studies, chapters in textbooks, and review articles. His published work has been cited > 30.000 times and his H-index is currently 85
He is a member of several distinguished academic organizations, including the Danish Academy for Natural Sciences and the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, and has been the recipient of the Anders Jahre Award for Medical Research, the Odd Fellow Award for Medical Research the Paul Langerhans Medal of the German Diabetes Association and the Claude Bernard award of the European Society for the Study of Diabetes.
Prof. Vincenzo Di Marzo
Dr. Vincenzo Di Marzo is a Research Director at the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry of the National Research Council (ICB-CNR) in Pozzuoli, Naples, Italy, coordinator of the Endocannabinoid Research Group in the Naples region, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Dr. Di Marzo was awarded a ChemD from the University of Naples in 1983, and a PhD in biochemistry and molecular pharmacology from Imperial College in London in 1988. He also completed postdoctoral studies in lipid biochemistry and natural product chemistry at ICB-CNR in 1990.
Dr. Di Marzo is co-author of more than 370 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, including several reviews on endocannabinoids. He has been also Editor or co-Editor of three books on endocannabinoids. In addition, he is, or has been, on the editorial board of Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes, and Essential Fatty Acids; Critical Reviews in Neurobiology; Recent Patents in CNS Drug Discovery and the British Journal of Pharmacology. Since 2007 he is the 4th most cited author in the field of “Pharmacology and Toxicology” (http://www.in-cites.com/nobel/2007-pha-top100.html).
Dr. Di Marzo has been the recipient of numerous research grants, including a Human Frontier Science Program research grant to study the biosynthesis, metabolism, and structure-activity relationships of anadamide; an INTAS research grant to study the immunomodulatory role of endocannabinoids; and a 3-year research grant from the VolkswagenStiftung in Germany. He has served as President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) between 2004 and 2005. Since December 2005 he is member of the board of the International Chair of Cardiometabolic Risk of Laval. In June 2006 he was awarded a Merkator Fellowship for Foreign Scientists by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft to visit Germany for 6 months and establish collaborations with German scientists. In June 2007, he was awarded by the ICRS the Mechoulam Award for “his outstanding contributions to cannabinoid research”.
Dr. Frank Reimann
Frank Reimann is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. After studying biochemistry in Hannover and receiving a PhD for work with cloned potassium channels in Hamburg, he moved to Oxford and subsequently in 2000 to Cambridge. His group investigates the stimulus secretion coupling of enteroendocrine cells using approaches combining molecular biological, electrophysiological and fluorescent imaging techniques. The lab mainly focuses on the incretin hormones glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP) and, in close collaboration with Fiona Gribble’s team, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Other interests involve the role of voltage gated ion channels in nociception.
Dr. John McLaughlin
Dr John McLaughlin, BSc (Hons) MB ChB (Hons) PhD FRCP, is an academic gastroenterologist with 15 years experience in clinical Gastroenterology and Gastrointestinal research. He trained at Manchester University, with periods of research training also in Liverpool and at Harvard.
His research interests are gastrointestinal physiology, particularly The interactions between nutrients and the gut epithelium, enteroendocrinology, the brain-gut axis and the regulation of appetite in health and disease. He is a Senior Lecturer the University of Manchester’s GI Science Group and as a clinical Consultant responsible for the regional GI
Physiology service at Hope Hospital. Current services include Chairmanship of the Research and Science Committee of the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, membership of the British Society of Gastroenterology Research Committee and leadership of the Gastrointestinal Comprehensive Local Research Network for Greater Manchester.
Prof. Fredrik Bäckhed
Professional positions
2009-present: Tenured Associate Professor, Institute of Medicine, Wallenberg Laboratory, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
2007-2009: Non-tenure Associate Professor, Institute of Medicine, Wallenberg Laboratory, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
2006-present: Group leader, Sahlgrenska Center for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
2006-2007: Assistant Professor, Institute of Medicine, Wallenberg Laboratory, University of Gothenburg University of Gothenburg
2003-2006: Postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Jeffrey Gordon’s laboratory at Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, USA.
Education
1998-2002: PhD studies at Microbiology and Tumor Biology Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm.
1993-1997: Undergraduate studies, major in Biology at Linköping University.
Honors and Awards
2005: Ingvar Carlsson Award (home-coming award for post-docs, funded by SSF)
2003-2008: Wenner-Gren Fellow.
2003: Chorafas prize at Karolinska Institutet (Chorafas prize is the highest award at Karolinska Institutet for PhD students and young post-docs).
Selected Publications
1. Bäckhed, F., Ding, H., Wang, T., Hooper, L. V., Koh, G. Y., Nagy, A., Semenkovich, CF., Gordon, J. I. (2004) The gut microbiota as an environmental factor that regulates fat storage. Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences USA. 101: 15718-15723.
2. Bäckhed, F., Ley, R. E., Sonnenburg, J. L., Peterson, D. A., Gordon, J. I. (2005) Host-Bacterial Mutualism in the Human Intestine. Science. 307: 1915-1920.
3. Ley, R. E., Bäckhed, F., Turnbaugh, P., Lozupone, C., Knight, R., Gordon, J. I. (2005) Obesity alters gut microbial ecology. Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences USA. 102: 11070-11075.
4. Bäckhed, F., Manchester, J. K., Semenkovich, C. F., Gordon, J. I. (2007) Mechanisms underlying the resistance to diet-induced obesity in germ-free mice. Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences USA. 104: 979-984.
5. Turnbaugh, P. J., Bäckhed, F., Fulton, L., Gordon, J. I. (2008) Diet-Induced Obesity Is Linked to Marked but Reversible Alterations in the Mouse Distal Gut Microbiome. Cell Host & Microbe. 3: 213-223
6. Orešič, M., Seppänen-Laakso, T., Yetukuri, L., Bäckhed, F., Hänninen, V. (2009) Gut microbiota affects lens and retinal lipid composition. Exp Eye Res. In Press
7. Velagapudi, V. R., Hezaveh, R., Reigstad, C. S., Gopalacharyulu, P.V., Yetukuri, L., Islam, S., Felin, J., Perkins, R., Boren, J., Oresic, M., Bäckhed, F. The gut microbiota modulates host energy and lipid metabolism in mice. J. Lipid. Res. In Press
Prof. Todd Klaenhammer
Todd R. Klaenhammer obtained degrees in Microbiology (B.S), and Food Science (M.S. & Ph.D) from the University of Minnesota. In 1978, he joined the North Carolina State University and currently holds faculty appoint-ments in the Departments of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences; and in the Departments of Microbiology, and Genetics; and serves as a faculty advisor in the Biotechnology and Genomics training programs. For 30 years he has directed a research program on food bioprocessing and the genetics of lactic acid bacteria used as probiotic and starter cultures. His group has published over 225 articles in journals and books on fermentation, lactic acid bacteria, probiotic cultures and their genomic traits.
Todd is Fellow in the the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Institute of Food Technologists, and the American Dairy Science Association and in 2009 was awarded the O. Max Gardner award for research that benefits human-kind, by the University of North Carolina, 17 campus system. In 2001, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Paul Ross
Prof. Paul Ross is Head of the Teagasc Food Research Pro-gramme (Moorepark & Ashtown Food Research Centres) which includes the role of Managing Director of Moorepark Tech-nology Ltd. – an ultramodern Dairy Pilot Plant facility. Paul is also a Principal Investigator in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) at NUI, Cork.
Prof. Ross graduated with a B.Sc. in Microbiology/Biochemistry in 1984 and with a PhD in Microbiology in 1989, both from NUI, Cork. He took up a post-doctoral fellowship at the Dept. of Biochemistry, Wake Forest University Medical Centre, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. While there, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Professor and was a founding faculty member of their Molecular Genetics Programme. He returned to Ireland in 1993 to take up a Senior Research Officer position at Teagasc, Moorepark to lead the research programme on Dairy Biotechnology. In 1997, he was appointed as Head of the Dairy Quality Department and then further promoted to Senior Principal Research Officer in 2001. Paul was appointed Head of the Biotechnololgy Centre at Moorepark Food Research Centre in 2003. He has built up a close partnership with colleagues at NUI Cork, particularly with Professors Colin Hill and Gerald Fitzgerald at the Microbiology Department and Professor Fergus Shanahan in Medicine (also the director of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre). His main research interests are in antimicrobial peptides and anti-infectives, probiotics, milk bioactives, bacteriocins, gut microbiology and functional foods. He has supervised 33 post-graduate students. He also has coordinated or been a (co-principle) investigator on numerous national, EU and National Institute Health (US) grants. He also is a member of the Executive Management Group of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, a virtual Centre between NUI, Cork and Teagasc (~ 50 scientists) devoted to the study of intestinal flora and their impact on human health. Paul was awarded the William C. Haines award by the California Research Council for his contribution to Dairy Science in 2007 and The Enterprise Ireland Commercialization award in 2008. Paul was conferred in March 2009 with a D.Sc. based on published works.
Prof. Nathalie Delzenne
N.M. Delzenne MD/FARM/PMNT Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Nathalie Delzenne is Professor at the Université catholique de Louvain. She is a lecturer in Nutrition and Biochemistry and is the leader of the research group in Experimental Nutrition in the Louvain Drug Research Institute. She is involved in international scientific committee (Editor for the current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, member of the Scientific Board of the European Academy of Nutritional Science, member of the Board of the Nutrition society (UK), vice-president of the Belgian Nutrition society, member of the Scientific Council for several food industries)
After a PhD in Pharmaceutical sciences obtained in 1991, and a post-doctoral certificate in Nutrition (Lausanne, CH), she performed a post-doctoral research in Paris (Inserm Unit 342) to analyse the effect of nutrients on gene expression in the field of obesity. Back at the Université catholique de Louvain, she started an academic carrier and has been involved in the experimental approach allowing to assess the functional effect of prebiotic-type nutrients, and in several International European Project devoted to functional food. By working with prebiotics, her group has published paper showing their effect on glucose/lipid metabolism and obesity-related disorder and inflammation. The current hypothesis is the involvement of intestinal peptides/hormones in the modulation of energy metabolism by nutrients targeting the gut microbiota.
Dr. Paul O’Toole
Department of Microbiology, & Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork, IRELAND. TEL: 00 353 21 490 3997; pwotoole@ucc.ie
Paul O’Toole is a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at University College Cork, following research and academic positions in Sweden, Canada, New Zealand and the US. His main research theme is the genomics of gastrointestinal bacteria – comparative and functional genomics with emphasis on human associated species and colonization factors including motility; genome architecture and genome evolution in the lactobacilli and helicobacters; lactobacillus-host interaction; lactobacillus metabolism. The broader ecological ramifications of these interactions are being complemented by examining the composition and function of the gut microbiota, its dependence on diet, and its relationship to health, ageing and well-being in humans and animals. He is co-ordinator of ELDERMET (eldermet.ucc.ie), a national initiative to characterize the gut microbiota in 500 elderly Irish subjects, run in collaboration between UCC, Teagasc Moorepark, and local clinical practitioners in Cork. A medium term aim is to develop novel functional foods and food ingredients for the Irish food industry, that promote health through knowledge of their effect upon the microbiota.
Work in Paul O’Toole’s lab is supported by Science Foundation Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Ireland.
Prof. Randy Seeley
Dr. Randy Seeley is Professor of Medicine and holds the Donald C. Harrison Endowed Chair at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. His work has focused on the actions of various peripheral hormones in the CNS that serve to regulate food intake, body weight and the regulation of circulating fuels. In particular, he has focused upon the numerous hypothalamic and G.I. peptides and their associated receptors that influence both energy intake as well as peripheral metabolic processes.
Dr. Seeley received his B.A. from Grinnell College in 1989 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. He then spent two years as a fellow and two years on the faculty at the University of Washington before locating to the University of Cincinnati in 1997. He has published over 175 peer-reviewed articles including articles in Science, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience Reviews, The Journal of Clincial Investigation and the New England Journal of Medicine. He is also the author of 14 book chapters and co-edited a volume on macronutrient selection. He also is the recipient of the 2003 Lilly Scientific Achievement Award from the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (now named The Obesity Society) given to the individual with the highest level of scientific achievement in obesity research in North America less than 15 years after their terminal degree. He is also the co-recipient of the 2008 Ernst Oppenheimer award from the Endocrine society. This Award is the premier award to an investigator under the age of 45 in recognition of meritorious accomplishment in the field of basic or clinical endocrinology. He is also the recipient of the 2009 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award (sometimes referred to as the “Lilly Award”) from the American Diabetes Association. This award is presented to an individual medical researcher under age 45 who has made an outstanding contribution to diabetes research that demonstrates both originality and independence of thought. Dr. Seeley has also served on numerous review panels for the NIH and was Chair of the Integrative Physiology of Obesity and Diabetes review panel. In 2009, Dr. Seeley was appointed as the Director of the Joint Center of Excellence in Obesity and Diabetes for the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center.
Prof. Robert Jan Brummer
Robert Brummer (1957) studied medicine at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. During the last part of his study, he was a Research Fellow at the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Sahlgrenska University Hospital Göteborg, Sweden.
After having received his MD in 1983, he was appointed junior staff member at the same Department and obtained a degree as a clinical nutritionist. Subsequently, he continued his clinical training at the Department of Medicine, University Hospital Maastricht, The Netherlands, and was registered as an internist and later as a gastroenterologist. In 1992, he obtained a PhD at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, for his thesis ‘Body composition in acromegaly: A clinical and methodological study’.
Professor Brummer became senior staff member at the Department of Internal Medicine/Gastroenterology of the University Hospital Maastricht, head of the GI-Motility Laboratory, and co-director of the MedPsych Department. His main field of interest in research is the metabolic interface between gastrointestinal disease / ‘brain-gut axis’ and nutrition as well as nutrient-gut interaction, with special reference to intestinal microbiota, and produced more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and holds 4 patents. Robert Brummer has been supervisor of 10 PhD graduates and another 5 PhD fellows are supervised at this moment.
Since 2002, he has a chair in ‘Medical Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics’ and was also in charge of the Department of Clinical Dietetics. He was division director and subsequently deputy and acting scientific director of the Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht (NUTRIM), a well-respected interfaculty research institution comprising more than 100 PhD fellows and 30 professors. He is member of the Dutch Food&Nutrition Core Team, which has created an integrated knowledge and businees chain in Food and Nutrition. In 2004 professor Brummer joined Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, now TI Food and Nutrition, a public-private Leading Technology Institute as Programme Director ‘Nutrition and Health’.
He serves a number of national and international board functions within the domain of gastrointestinal and nutritional sciences, agro-food and nutritional innovation, and as such has been one of the architects of the EU Technology Platform Food4Life programme ‘Nutrition and Health’.
He is a frequently invited lecturer on microbe-gut interactions as well as on public-private partnership in research on both health science as well as economic forums. From 1 April 2008 he joined Örebro University and University Hospital, Sweden as professor of Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition and senior consultant. He is the initiator -together with em Prof Bengt Björksten- and will be director of the crossdisciplinary research institute NUPARC (The Örebro Nutrition and Physical Activity Research Centre for Optimal Functionality through LIfe) and builds up a comprehensive research platform on microbe-gut interactions directed to gut-brain signalling. He kept an honorary professorship at Maastricht University. From January 2010 he is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health at Örebro University, Sweden
Prof. Terez Shea-Donohue
After graduating from Georgetown University with a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics, Dr. Shea-Donohue joined the faculty of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland. In 2004, she moved to the University of Maryland, School of Medicine Faculty as part of the newly developed Mucosal Biology Research Center. She is currently Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Physiology. Her service to the community includes member of the abstract review committee for American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) annual meeting (Digestive Disease week; 2006-2010), member of the Associate Editor of Gut Microbes, and Editorial Board member of Neurogastroenterology and Motility and the American Journal of Physiology (Gastrointestinal and Liver), elected member of the International Motility Society Steering Committee (2002-2007), service on NIH study sections for NIH/NIDDK (2002-2007) and NIAID (2007-2010), and elected AGA councilor.
Dr. Shea-Donohue’s research interests are focused on the mechanisms involved in immune regulation of gastrointestinal function. A major goal of the work is to determine the contribution of non-immune cells to cytokine-induced alterations in gut function, particularly, the interaction between structural cells (epithelial cells, smooth muscle, enteric nerves) and immune cells in mediating both transient and long-term changes induced by upregulation of specific profiles of cytokine profiles. Current interests include the mechanisms important to the immune regulation of nutrient absorption in the small intestine. The mechanisms responsible for the immune-mediated response are of interest for several reasons. First, intestinal parasites continue to be a major worldwide health issue; second, the low incidence of parasite infection in industrial nations is cited as a factor in the increased prevalence of autoimmune-based inflammatory pathologies such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and diabetes; and third, there is an increasing interest in development of therapies for mucosal disease that are based on immune mechanisms. In recognition of this work Dr. Shea-Donohue was awarded the Janssen Award (currently the Masters Awards in Gastroenterology) in 1997. She is the author or co-author of more than 50 papers in the last 7 years. This work is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIAID and NIDDK).
Prof. Rob O’Doherty
Dr. O’Doherty graduated from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland in 1986 with a BA (Mod) and in 1995 obtained a PhD from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN., USA in Molecular Physiology, with a focus on insulin action. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas he joined the faculty of the Departments of Medicine (Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism) and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. He is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine, and since 2009 a Principal Investigator at the Alimentary Phramabiotic Center (APC) at University College Cork, Ireland. Dr. O’Doherty’s research focus is on the biochemical and molecular mechanisms that link obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and inflammation in the metabolic syndrome (MS). MS comprises a clustering of risk factors (obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia/steatosis, inflammation, hypertension and altered thrombotic status) that dramatically increase the risk of developing diabetes and coronary vascular disease (CVD). As such MS is an extremely serious public health problem that consumes excessive health care resources. Thus, understanding the causes of MS and identifying targets for the treatment of MS is a high priority. A major focus of his current research efforts is determining the mechanisms that link steatosis (excessive lipid storage in tissues) and insulin resistance and the role of increased activity of the innate immune system/inflammatory pathways and nutrition in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and dyslipidema.
Prof. John Bienenstock
Dr. John Bienenstock is internationally known as a physician and mucosal immunologist. He trained at King’s College, London and Westminster Hospital, London, U.K. He holds the title of Distinguished University Professor at McMaster University, an Honorary MD (Goteborg, Sweden), is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Member of the Order of Canada. He is the Founding Director of the McMaster Brain-Body Institute at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, a former Chair of Pathology and subsequently Dean and Vice-President of the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.
Dr. Bienenstock is a frequent speaker at symposia and plenary sessions and has organized a number of international conferences. He has served as the President of the Canadian Society of Immunology, the Society of Mucosal Immunology and the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum. He was invited by the Government of Australia to review the operation of the National Health and Medical Research Council. This resulted in the overhaul and restructuring of the Council’s organization and operations. He similarly reviewed the research operations of the Universities of Sydney, Australia, and Goteborg, Sweden and in 2000 completed a review of the Faculty of Public Health for the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. He acts as a consultant to venture capital groups, foundations and the pharmaceutical industry.
He has held a continuous operating research grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada for more than 20 years. He has published more than 500 peer reviewed articles and other publications. He has authored, edited and co-edited 8 books including the standard text on mucosal immunology. He has supervised some 30 post doctoral fellows and 10 doctoral students.
His areas of interest are: immunophysiology; mucosal immunology and its alteration in a variety of disease models; mast cell biology; the role of neuroimmune interactions in allergy and inflammation; the reciprocal communication between the nervous system and immune systems; mechanisms of action of commensal bacteria on the nervous system and behaviour and in various models of inflammation.
Prof. Tiina Matilla Sandholm
Tiina Mattila-Sandholm, DVM, obtained a PhD at the University of Helsinki in 1985 on diagnostic tools to detect anti-inflammatory compounds in bovine milk. Her thesis was supported by the diagnostic company Labsystems Oy where she was subsequently employed. Thereafter she spent her postdoc years 1987-1988 in Australia, University of Queensland, Department of Veterinary Public Health.
Subsequently, she established a career at VTT Finland, heading the Microbiology Department and for the last ten years she has held the Professorship in Industrial Microbiology at VTT Biotechnology as well as headed the VTT Life Sciences business sector. From 1994 onwards she invested active efforts in European community, coordinating both national and international multidisciplinary research programmes based on food and health and leading the Nordic and European probiotic-prebiotic networks. She has coordinated many large EU projects, including the European multinational cluster “Food GI-tract functionality and human health” of 8 EU projects, 64 institutes in 16 countries. This cluster included the research of 64 institutions and provided a structure of both consumer and industrial platforms, the latter consisting of 50 industrial companies. Recently, she coordinated the Specific Support Actions projects GutHealth and GutImpact.
From August 2004-2007 she has been Senior Vice President and R&D Director of Valio R&D, one of the most innovative Dairy companies in the world, and from 2007 she is Executive Vice President and member of the Valio Board of Executives.
She has produced in teamwork altogether more than 150 international refereed publications, among which 5 have been cited more than 100 times, and co-edited the book Functional Dairy Products (2003). She received various awards, including the Young Scientist Award Welcome Foundation UK and the Innopotti Industry Innovation Award, and gave numerous invited and key note lectures. She has held the EU DG Research Chair of the Advisory Group of 6th Framework Thematic priority 5, Food Quality and Safety from 2002-2006, served at the ILSI Board of Directors and is member of the Horizontal Group of the European Technology Platform (ETP) Food for Life.
Since 2007 she serves as Board Member of the Academy of Finland. She also held the Chair of the Biosciences and Environment of the Academy of Finland from 2004-2007. Moreover, since 2008 she holds a special professorship at University College Cork Ireland. On June 2009 she received a life-time honorary professorship by the President of the Republic of Finland.
Mr. Jens Bleiel
Jens Bleiel is German national, 47 years old and has one daughter. He is a business economist by training. He started his career at a management consultant company in Germany in the business segments of strategy, organization and personnel. After 5 years, he joined Dutch company Numico and held several management and executive functions in the baby food branch of the company (Cow&Gate, amongst other brands). His assignments brought him to Argentina, Germany and the Netherlands. His last function was Global Marketing Director Infant Milks. After 10 years in this business with the nicest customers of the world – babies – Jens Bleiel joined Dutch multinational DSM, world market leader in vitamins and other food ingredients. As Senior Vice President Metabolic Health Products, he built up the functional food business in the area of metabolic health products, one of the biggest health concerns in the world today. On August 17, 2009, Jens Bleiel was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Food for Health Ireland and moved over to Ireland.
Food for Health Ireland (FHI) is a new organisation, located at the campus of UCC. Supported by Enterprise Ireland, FHI unites four of Ireland’s public research organizations (University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Limerick, Moorepark Food Research Centre, Teagasc) and four Irish dairy companies (Carbery Group, Dairygold Co-operative Society Ltd, Glanbia plc. and Kerry Group plc.) in a single research centre aimed at developing functional food products to improve people’s health and wellness.
Prof. Willem de Vos
Willem M. de Vos (1954) studied Biochemistry and received a cum laude PhD degree at the University of Groningen that was partly done at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, stayed for a post-doc at the NIRD (now IFR) in the UK, and became research manager at NIZO, the research institute of the Netherlands dairy industry. Here he established a research group on lactic acid bacteria and (at the age of 32) became first Professor of Bacterial Genetics and later Chair of Microbiology at Wageningen University, where he also served as Director of the Department of Biomolecular Sciences. While continuing to chair the Laboratory of Microbiology his joint NIZO appointment was terminated in 2000 to become Programme Director Microbial Functionality and Safety at the Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, now known as the Top Institute Food and Nutrition, a public-private Centre of Excellence in the Netherlands. In 2007 he stepped down from that function as he was elected Finland Distinguished Professor and he now serves as Professor Microbiology at Wageningen University and Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Helsinki University, where he is also associated senior group leader at the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine.
He has supervised more than 80 PhD students, published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers, and has been involved in the filing of more than 25 patents or patent applications. He received several international awards, including FEBS, EMBO and CEC fellowships, the Rhone Poulenc Marschall International Dairy Science Award, and the 2008 Spinoza Award, from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). In 2009 he was elected as member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Arts. He serves in various international scientific advisory boards in the area of genomics, biotechnology and food, is co-chairing the Faculty of 1000 on Food and Industrial Biotechnology, and is among the ISI highly cited authors in Microbiology (h factor > 70).
Prof. Paul de Vos
Paul de Vos (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) has published more than 100 scientific papers on bioencapsulation. The fast majority of his work has been dedicated to the design of systems to encapsulate mammalian cells and to provide immunoprotection. Since 2006, he is chairman of the microcapsule workgroup that is part of the EU funded consortium ‘Multiscale requirements for bioencapsulation in medicine and biotechnology.’. Since this time he is involved and leading a number of projects dedicated to targeted delivery of bioactive food components in the gastrointestinal tract. Currently Paul is leader of the project ‘Fermentation enhanced probiotic function’ which is part of the Dutch Top institute Food and Nutrition.
Charlotte Rasmussen
MD, PhD student
Biography: Graduated as medical doctor Feb 2008. During several years occupied in research on endocrinology and metabolism. Presently a PhD student at Jens Juul Holst group at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is a hormone secreted from enteroendocrine cells, named the L-cells, of the gastrointestinal tract. During the past decade, GLP-1 has been proven a very important incretin hormone, and a target of anti-diabetic drugs. Thus, the stimulation of L-cell secretion and the underlying mechanisms has gained increasing interest. In our work, we study the effect of various substances on the secretion of GLP-1 in the isolated vascularly perfused preparations of intestine from pig and rat.