Top
Skip to Content
LOGO(small) - Queen's University Belfast
  • Our x-twitter
  • Our facebook
  • Our linkedin
  • Our youtube
LOGO(large) - Queen's University Belfast

The Institute For Global Food Security

  • Home
  • Research
    • Nutrition and Preventive Medicine
    • Enabling Technologies, Data and Data Innovation
    • Food Integrity
    • Agriculture & Environmental Resilience
    • Research Impact
    • Research Culture
    • Research Environment
    • Recent Research Outputs
    • Postgraduate Research
  • Partnerships (including EIT Food)
    • Queen's-AFBI Alliance
  • Contact
    • Researchers and PhD supervisors
    • Key Contacts
    • Laboratory Staff
  • News
    • News Archive 2022
    • News Archive 2021
    • Covid-19 and Food podcast
    • News Archive 2020
    • News Archive 2019
    • News Archive 2018
    • News Archive 2017
    • News Archive 2016
  • Facilities (including ASSET lab)
  • Events
  • Media
  • Home
  • Research
    • Nutrition and Preventive Medicine
    • Enabling Technologies, Data and Data Innovation
    • Food Integrity
    • Agriculture & Environmental Resilience
    • Research Impact
    • Research Culture
    • Research Environment
    • Recent Research Outputs
    • Postgraduate Research
  • Partnerships (including EIT Food)
    • Queen's-AFBI Alliance
  • Contact
    • Researchers and PhD supervisors
    • Key Contacts
    • Laboratory Staff
  • News
    • News Archive 2022
    • News Archive 2021
    • Covid-19 and Food podcast
    • News Archive 2020
    • News Archive 2019
    • News Archive 2018
    • News Archive 2017
    • News Archive 2016
  • Facilities (including ASSET lab)
  • Events
  • Media
  • Our x-twitter
  • Our facebook
  • Our linkedin
  • Our youtube
In This Section
  • Nutrition and Preventive Medicine
  • Enabling Technologies, Data and Data Innovation
  • Food Integrity
  • Agriculture & Environmental Resilience
  • Research Impact
  • Research Culture
  • Research Environment
  • Recent Research Outputs
  • Postgraduate Research

  • Home
  • Research
  • Nutrition and Preventive Medicine

Nutrition and Preventive Medicine

This team straddles the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences (SMDBS), forming a core inter-disciplinary research (IDR) pillar within IGFS. With research expertise in three main areas – molecular nutrition; biomarker development and discovery; and nutritional epidemiology and randomised controlled trials – the theme has expanded from six to 14.3 FTE academic staff in the last two years and also includes 27 PDRFs and 36 PhD students.

Prestigious investment in this theme includes two US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme funding streams (£3.25M & £2.5M; 2019-24).  There is a major focus on plant-based diets, diet quality, biomarkers, cardio-metabolic health and healthy ageing.  International collaborators include, for example, world leaders at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and across Europe.

Having a strong foothold in the Centre for Public Health at the SMDBS drives impact. For example, this theme participates in two all-Ireland, INTERREG healthcare intervention projects, one involving Type 2 Diabetes in relation to neuro-cognitive ageing; the other regarding weight management in pregnancy. Similarly, two researchers lead on the dietary aspects of the NICOLA study – the first large-scale, longitudinal study of ageing in NI.

This group holds monthly meetings throughout the academic year, providing a vibrant and supportive environment for experienced staff and ECRs alike.

PROJECT CASE-STUDIES

Image of pipettes being used in the laboratory
Do micronutrients affect brain function?
Q and q for resilient IQ

Queuosine (Q) is a micronutrient that plays a key role in metabolism, brain function and healthy ageing. There is a lack of knowledge, however, of the levels in food and optimum intake. 

Q and its precursor queuine (q) are exclusively retrieved from ingested food and bacterial microflora. As part of a US-Ireland R&D Programme consortium (Belfast, Dublin, Florida, Ohio, San Diego), Professor Brian Green’s group is working on fundamentals of Q/q biology and developing methods to measure them. Related projects under the CITI-GENS DTP combine to create strong potential to improve human health.

Read more Read less

Heart
Are cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes linked?
Molecular nutrition

Led by Dr Qiaozhu Su and funded by the British Heart Foundation, this three-year study will investigate the links between Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. 

Specifically, the project will investigate the role of excessive nutrients and two important molecules, microRNA-378 and estrogen-related receptor gamma, in people with Type 2 diabetes who go on to suffer heart attacks, strokes or heart failure. Successful delivery will potentially facilitate the identification of novel drug targets to help prevent people with Type-2 diabetes from developing serious cardiovascular disease.

Read more Read less

Vegetables
Can a Mediterranean diet offset dementia?
Neuro-cognitive ageing

Dementia is major public-health challenge. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to under-nutrition which can increase risk. There is a critical need, therefore, to address that under-nutrition.

Dr Claire McEvoy co-ordinates the EU H2020 JPI-HDHL ‘PROMED-COG’ project, with academic partners and stakeholders in Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Germany to better understand how diet and physical activity can prevent under-nutrition. Ultimately, this project aims to generate evidence-based guidelines for using a protein-enriched Mediterranean diet for healthier neuro-cognitive ageing.

Read more Read less

Research Expertise in Nutrition and Preventive Medicine

 

  • Molecular nutrition
  • Randomised control trials
  • Nutritional epidemiology
  • Biomarker development and discovery (of intake and health)
  • Plant food and bioactives
  • Healthy ageing
  • Diet/gut microbiome interactions
  • Cardio-metabolic health
  • Primary and secondary prevention of chronic disease 

Theme members:

  • Professor Jayne Woodside
  • Professor Aedin Cassidy
  • Professor Michelle McKinley
  • Professor Helen Roche
  • Professor Ian Young
  • Professor Brian Green
  • Professor Moira Dean
  • Dr Marie Cantwell
  • Dr Claire McEvoy
  • Dr Qiaozhu Su
  • Dr Anne Nugent
  • Dr Danielle McCarthy
  • Dr Laura Magowan
  • Dr Tilman Khun
  • Dr Konstantin Panov
  • Dr Ciaren Graham
Research
  • Research
  • Nutrition and Preventive Medicine
  • Enabling Technologies, Data and Data Innovation
  • Food Integrity
  • Agriculture & Environmental Resilience
  • Research Impact
  • Research Culture
  • Research Environment
  • Recent Research Outputs
  • Postgraduate Research
QUB Logo
Contact Us

Institute for Global Food Security
Biological Sciences Building
19 Chlorine Gardens, Belfast
BT9 5DL

Email: IGFS@qub.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 6514

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Research
  • Study
  • Partnerships

 

© Queen's University Belfast 2024
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures
Information
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures

© Queen's University Belfast 2024

Manage cookies