ABOUT ME
Appointments
2015- : Career track research leader at Quadram Institute of Bioscience
(former Institute of Food Research), Norwich, UK.
2013-2015: Postdoctoral researcher at Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
The University of Queensland (Australia).
2011-2012: Applications Scientist, PerkinElmer, UK, and PDRA at King’s College London
Education
2011: Nutritional Biochemistry Ph.D. King’s College London
Thesis: The interactions of alpha-amylase with the surface of starch granules: The influence of particle size and supramolecular structure.
2007: Biochemistry B.Sc., First Class (Hons), King’s College London.
Research focus
My research interests focus on advancing our understanding of how the physical structure of foods influence their behaviour and digestion in the G.I. tract. This research has led me to take a highly multi-disciplinary approach, combining expertise in thermal and spectroscopic methods, enzyme kinetics and associated methods, rheological approaches and microbiology techniques. Using this wide range of techniques I have explored how food is digested from oral processing, through the stomach and small intestine, and onto microbial fermentation in the large bowel, with a particular focus on how these processes are influenced by structure and physical properties of carbohydrate, and other components, in starchy foods.
Throughout my research career I have experience of leading industrially sponsored projects, and of working within industry. I have developed an international network of collaborators during my time working at the University of Queensland, Australia, both in Australia and throughout Asia.
Teaching focus
Areas of expertise
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Starch structure
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Biochemistry
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Nutrition science
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Spectroscopy
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Thermal analysis
