Research Interests:

My research interests are centred around food safety and human nutrition. Key interests include:

• Chemical contaminants in foods and primary agricultural production
• Contaminant exposure assessment in human populations using biomarkers
• Assessment of toxicity of contaminant using in vitro models of the human gut
• Microbial metabolism of nutrients and contaminants by gut microbiota
• Host-microbe interactions that affect gut health

Activities:

• Member of the FSS/Rowett Mycotoxin working group (since 2020)
• Member of the UK Food Standards Agency Register of Specialists (Food safety – chemical contaminants & additives, since 2019)
• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (since 2019)
• Grant reviewer: BBSRC (since 2019), French National Research Agency (2013-2017)
• Editorial board member: Frontiers in Predictive Toxicity (since 2010)
• Member of organising committee: Biannual Rowett-INRA Symposium on Gut Microbiology (since 2009)
• Member of the Rowett Human Study Ethics Review Panel (since 2016)
• Member of the Rowett Athena Swan Equality and Diversity Team (since 2017)

Supervision:

• PhD student (2019-2022): Candida albicans infection of the human gut using human intestinal organoid cultures. Funded by NC3Rs.
• PhD student (2017-2021): Interactions between food-borne mycotoxins and human gut microbiota. Funded by Elphinstone scholarship.
• PhD student (2011-2015): Studies on the influence of essential oils on human gut bacteria and colonic cells. Funded by Agolin ltd.

Teaching:

• Coordinator of MSc course Clinical Nutrition (since 2018)
• Coordinator of MSc course Foundations of Nutrition (2016-2018)