ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUGH SINCLAIR UNIT OF HUMAN NUTRITION
2007-2008
1. Introduction:
The Hugh Sinclair Unit (HSU) forms part of the Nutrition Research Group of the School of Food Biosciences. This report relates to the activities of staff funded by the Hugh Sinclair Trust: Dr Parveen Yaqoob (Reader), Dr Anne-Marie Minihane (Reader,), Dr Julie Lovegrove (Reader), Dr Jeremy Spencer, (Lecturer), Dr Orla Kennedy, (Lecturer) and Dr Ian Rowland (Professor and Head of the Hugh Sinclair Unit).
In addition to Sinclair Trust funded staff, the Nutrition Research group (NRG) has centrally funded members of staff that make a major contribution to the success of the Group, namely Professor Mike Gordon, Dr Carol Wagstaff.In 2006, Professor Christine Williams was promoted to Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences and although no longer funded by the Trust, she continues to take a very active role in the activities of the Unit.
Outside the Hugh Sinclair Unit, an Archivist,Mrs Hayley Whiting, has been appointed to catalogue and organize the Hugh Sinclair archive.
2. Publications (Appendix A), Invited research presentations and Public Understanding of Science activity
During the year, the HSU published 58 peer-reviewed papers, 9 invited reviews and 4 book chapters. This represent a substantial increase over last year. It is noteworthy that a large proportion (75%) of the original papers from the HSU staff are in journals in the top 20% of the field, with 22% being published in the top 10% of Journals.
Staff received a number of invitations to speak at prestigious national and international meetings and they also participated in outreach and science dissemination events and were involved in press and other media coverage of nutritional issues.
3. Grants awarded and submitted during 2007-8
In terms of research grants, it has been an extremely successful year for the Unit, with the total amount of income (£2,329,188) almost double that of last year. Particularly noteworthy has been the success of members of the Unit in obtaining highly competitive BBSRC funding, which has included projects on ApoE genotype and macrophage inflammatory status (Drs Minihane & Spencer), dietary fatty acids and insulin resistance in the endothelium (Drs Williams, Minihane and Jackson) and enhancement of learning and memory by flavonoids (Drs Spencer & Williams). These projects will enable the group to consolidate and further develop its international reputation in the areas nutrient-gene interactions, diet and cognitive function, and diet and vascular function.
It is clear also that the Unit is gaining considerable income from commercial sources has established long term working relationships with Unilever and Masterfoods.
It is a measure of the esteem in which members of the unit are held, that Prof Williams and Dr Minihane were approached directly by the Food Standards Agency to write a critical review of trans fats for SACN.
In terms of future work, a number of proposals have been submitted to the Food Standards Agency, European Commission, the Wellcome Trust and the World Cancer Research Fund. Member of HSU are also involved, in collaboration with colleagues in Food Biosciences, in 2 submissions to the BBSRC DRINC initiative In total submitted proposals comprise£5.98 million
Postdoctoral staff and PhD students funded by grant income generated by Sinclair funded staff are shown inAppendix F.
4. Membership of university and external bodies and committees,
As well as playing active roles in many Faculty and University committees, members of HSU staff are taking on increasing external responsibilities as members of editorial boards and committees of scientific societies, particularly the Nutrition Society where there is a strong presence from HSU members : Dr Kennedyand Professor Rowland are on Council, Dr Yaqoob is involved in a number of activities within the Nutrition Society notably as leader of one of the Nutrition Society’s main themes ‘Cellular and molecular nutrition’ and as a member of the Scientific Development Committee and the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Nutrition.Dr Lovegrove continues to play an important role on the Accreditation Committee for undergraduate degree courses in Nutrition, established by the Nutrition Society,
5. Ongoing activity and future challenges
The Hugh Sinclair Unit will continue to work closely with the other research groups (Food Microbial Sciences [FMS] and Food and Bioprocessing Sciences [FaBS]) within the Food Biosciences Department. It is hoped that the ongoing collaborative projects will be expanded by the success of current joint grant applications, notably the large BBSRC-DRINC proposals on cocoa polyphenols (joint with FaBS) and gut microflora and obesity (joint with FMS). The Food Chain and Health theme which was launched in March 2006, continues to be a very successful mechanism for mounting new joint research ventures. Members of the Unit have very successful and effective collaborations with the animal nutrition group in Agriculture via Professor Ian Givens and with researchers in Psychology.
Two major University-wide initiatives will also have a major impact on work in the HSU in the next few years. Future work in the area of nutrition and brain function will take advantage of the recent expansion of expertise in neuroscience at Readingand the formation of the Centre for Integrated Neuroscience & Neurodynamics. This Centre will encompass technological advances in brain imaging and signaling techniques providing unprecedented opportunities for quantifying aspects of normal and pathological brain behavior. Dietary studies utilising functional MR scanning and EEG/ERP will allow us to generate state of the art structural and functional images of the living brain in response to specific nutrients. Furthermore, cellular and molecular mechanistic work alongside behavioural analysis will allow us to make detailed predictions on how dietary agents, such as phytochemicals, impact on neuro-cognitive performance.
Members of HSU will also be associated with the soon-to-be-established Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research (ICMR). The ICMR aims to bring together some of the strongest research in cardiovascular and metabolic biology in the University, particularly in the areas of platelet biology, atherogenesis, insulin signalling, postprandial lipid metabolism, nutrigenetics, bioactive phytochemicals and vascular function. The Institute will also incorporate emerging areas of experimental importance, including systems biology and mathematical modeling approaches, being developed in the Mathematics department in collaboration with members of HSU.
In summary, 2007/2008 has been an extremely successful year for the Hugh Sinclair Unit in terms of all the usual criteria for evaluation of a research group – publications, invited talks, interactions with the press and public and, not least, grant income.
Ian Rowland
Hugh Sinclair Professor Human Nutrition
April 2008
Membership of university and external committees/ expert groups by staff
of the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition 2007-2008
Dr G K Grimble
External examiner for BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Plymouth (July 2005 to date)
Dr O B Kennedy
University Committees
Member of the Dept. Food Biosciences; teaching committee, teaching steering group, TIPT Board, recruitment board and board of studies committee.
Acting warden ReadingStudentVillage (July – Oct 2007) deputy warder to end Jan 2008.
Course leader BSc Nutrition and Food Science
External Committees
Council Member, Nutrition Society (July 2006 to date).
External affair team, Nutrition Society (Nov 2007 to date),
Nutrition Society Liaison Representative.
Registered dietitian with HPC.
Fellow of the IFST.
Nutrition Society Representative on the editorial board of Complete Nutrition( Jan 2008 to date).
Membership Committee, IFST (Sept 2007 to date)
Communication Taskforce Committee, IFST (March 2008 to date).
British Journal of Nutrition Editorial Board (2006 to date)
Dr J A Lovegrove
University Committees
Member of the University of Reading Research Ethics committee (Nov 2006 to date)
Member of the School of Chemistry, Food Biosciences and Pharmacy Research Ethics committee (Jan 2006 to date)
Member of the Arthur Hosier / Meyer Sassoon Selection Committee (May 2005 to date)
Member of Postgraduate Research Degree Committee (Nov 2006 to date)
External Committees
Invited member of Expert Review Panel to assess ‘Evidence of nutrient content of organic vs. conventional foods, and health benefits of consumption of organic foods’ FSA October 2007-May 2008
External Assessor for Food Standards Agency for ‘Independent Organic Review’ December 2007
External examiner for MSc programme in Public Health Nutrition. LondonSchool of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. (March 2007 to date)
External examiner for BSc programmes in Nutrition and Dietetics. King college London (Oct 2006 to date)
Committee member of Course Accreditation Committee for the ‘Nutrition Society’ (October2004-date)
Chairperson for ‘Oxford Nutrition Group’. November 2001-date
Dr A M Minihane
University Committees
SFB QAR committee
SFB Summer School Committee
Sub theme leader in Food Chain & Health research theme
External Committee
Member of the Nutrition Society and Biochemical Society.
Programmes Committee Nutrition Society (2006-present)
Member of Bioscience for Business Special Interest Group in Health and Wellbeing (2007-present)
Member of Fat Panel (2007-present)
Dr J P E Spencer
University Committees
Leader the Food Chain and Health sub-theme “Plant Bioactives and Health”:
Member of the Neuroscience at Reading Steering Committee: Involved planning the 5-year strategy of operation for this University wide facility.
Member of the Quality Assurance in Research team. Working towards implementation of QAR across the research groups in Food Biosciences.
Professor Ian Rowland
External committees
Member of Board of Trustees, British Nutrition Foundation (2008-)
Associate Editor of Nutrition and Cancer
Editorial Board, Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease
Editorial Board, European Journal of Nutrition
Editorial Board, Molecular Nutrition and Food Research
Council member , Nutrition Society (2007-
Member: Nutrition and Ageing task Force British Nutrition Foundation
Member Health Research Board of Ireland, Cellular and Molecular Medicine Project review panel, Dublin
Vice chairman, UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment
Member of Board, McCormick Science Institute USA (2008-)
Management Committee member , COST 926 project ‘Impact of new technologies on the health benefits and safety of bioactive plant compounds’
Organizing Committee - Nutrition Society summer conference in Coleraine July 2007
Chairman Alpro Foundation Masters Awards 2008-
Dr P Yaqoob
University Committees
Chair of the Travel Grants Sub-Committee
Member of the University Research Board
External Responsibilities
Member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Nutrition
Assistant Editor of Frontiers in Nutritional Sciences, a series of advanced texts
Theme Leader, Cellular & Molecular Nutrition, The Nutrition Society
Member of the Scientific Development Committee of the Nutrition Society
Member of the British Nutrition Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee
Member of the Scientific Committee of the International Workshop on Immunonutrition, Valencia, Spain, October 2007
Professor C M Williams
University Committees
As Dean of Life Science responsibilities
External Responsibilities
Governor, British Nutrition Foundation 2002-
Member of the Rank Prize Funds Trustees Advisory Committee on Nutrition (2008-)
Member of the Scottish Research Institutes Personal Merit Promotion Panel (2008-2011)
Adviser to Chair Appointments in Nutrition 2007-8: i) University of East Anglia, ii) Tate and Lyle Chair in Nutrition, Kings College, London, iii) Chair in Nutrition, University of Surrey
Member of the Judging Panel for The Silver Medal, the Nutrition Society (2008)
Pepsico UK Strategic Advisory Board
Unilever Corporate Science Review Panel