News

At the initiative of WELCOME2 ERA Chair holder, prof. Carsten Carlberg, the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research has joined the European Organization of Nutrigenomics NuGO. NuGO is a prestiogious international association of universities and research institutes focusing on the joint development of the research areas of molecular nutrition, personalised nutrition, nutrigenomics and nutritional systems biology.

NuGO has a mission focused on:

• stimulating developments in molecular nutrition, personalised nutrition, nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics and nutritional systems biology, and incorporating these aspects in nutrition and health research, by joint research projects, conferences, workshops and training. NuGO can join as partner in your research project.
• shaping the nutrition bioinformatics infrastructure, by initiating, coordinating and facilitating projects in this area, and by hosting the dissemination of all data, results and information.

Among NuGO member organisations we may find such as Wageningen University & Research, Quadram Institute Bioscience, Ghent University or University of Melbourne. See the full list here.

SEMINARS

NuGO has just announced a series of webinars 2022 ECN NuGO, and the first of them „Precision Nutrition – Fact or Fiction; Using multi-omics to unravel the multiple inter-related determinants of our individual responses to food” will be held 30th March at 11:00AM (CEST). The speakers will be Drs. Sarah Berry and Kate Bermingham from King’s College London.

Click here to register for the event.

Summary

There is growing awareness of the need to move beyond the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in nutritional advice. However, for personalised nutrition to become a reality, large-scale, high precision data integrating multiple dietary, lifestyle, physiological, genetic and metagenomic data is required. This webinar will explore 1) why we need personalised approaches to nutrition advice, 2) the current status of personalised nutrition and remote clinical trials and 3) new developments with a focus on the ZOE PREDICT programme of research. The ZOE PREDICT programme is the largest ongoing programme of personalised nutrition (n>20,000) assessing the genetic, metagenomic, metabolomic and meal-context drivers of metabolic responses to predict individual responses to food using AI. This research is at the forefront of developments in personalised nutrition and is forging a new way forward in the design and implementation of large-scale remote nutrition research studies integrating novel technologies, citizen science and AI. The PREDICT programme has demonstrated the large and potentially modifiable variation in metabolic responses to identical meals in healthy people and the role that ‘what’ we eat, ‘who’ we are and ‘how’ we eat plays in shaping our responses.

Speakers:

Sarah Berry is a Reader in Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. Her research interests relate to the influence of dietary components on cardiometabolic disease risk, with particular focus on; personalised nutrition, postprandial lipid metabolism and food and fat structure. Since commencing her research career at King’s, she has been the academic leader for more than 30 human nutrition studies in cardio-metabolic health. Sarah is also the lead nutritional scientist on the PREDICT programme of research, assessing the genetic, metabolic, metagenomic, and meal-dependent effects on metabolic responses to food in >20,000 individuals in the UK and US. This research is at the forefront of developments in personalised nutrition and is forging a new way forward in the design and implementation of large-scale remote nutrition research studies integrating novel technologies, citizen science and AI.

Kate Bermingham is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London. Her research areas of interest relate to understanding inter and intra-variation in dietary, anthropometric and metabolic phenotypes, and determining how individuals respond to different diets and lifestyles with a view to informing personalised nutrition strategies.

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The photo of prof. Agnieszka Wacławik taken by Radosław Dąbrowski during her research work won the Wiki Science Competition 2021 under the „Women in Science” category. It will enrich the catalog of free multimedia that will help illustrate Wikipedia and promote science.

In this year’s edition of the Wiki Science Competition 2021 in the category „Women in science, especially women in STEM, portraits of female scientists” the Polish jury awarded a distinction and submitted to the international stage the photo of prof. Agnieszka Wacławik, investigating molecular processes of pregnancy development in mammals. The author of the photo is Radosław Dąbrowski, a photographer living in Targów. He contacted Dr. Wacławik after reading information about her distinction on the TOP 2% list of the most influential scientists in the world.

The Wiki Science Competition is one of the world’s largest international photo contests documenting the world of science. It takes place every 2 years in two stages: national and international. It is aimed at all scientists, scientific institutions and science lovers, and photographers who are close to the idea of promoting and disseminating science in the modern world.

The Wiki Science Competition aims to encourage the creation and sharing of creative works depicting the world of science. The submitted files, which show, for example, research facilities, scientists at work, or research equipment, will help to illustrate the thousands of articles in the various language versions of Wikipedia, thus contributing to the promotion of science, the work of scientists, and the results of scientific research.

Click here for the full list of featured images in the Wiki Science Competition 2021.

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Working together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe

The last quarter of 2021 is a real boom in Polish-Icelandic cooperation for innovation in the field of the circular economy #CircularEconomy. Our Institute, together with the University of Iceland, Reykjavik and the Matís research institute, has carried out a number of activities that will help young scientists in Poland develop the competences necessary to co-create a sustainable food supply chain.

In October, we spent two weeks in Iceland and together with students we explored the phenomenon of the Icelandic way of managing side streams from agri-food production. Plant visits, meetings with entrepreneurs, lectures and exercises. Solving the real problems faced by food producing companies on the island. Then another training in the field of entrepreneurship and commercialization of scientific ideas, already conducted in Poland, with the participation of investors, start-ups and food producers. At the same time, exchanges and visits by employees of both countries.

We are about to work on a unique online course on adding value to side streams from agri-food production, which will equip young scientists and entrepreneurs with the knowledge necessary to create innovations in the circular economy, in which what is waste today has a chance to become fully valuable tomorrow product.

These activities were carried out thanks to the Bilateral Initiative „Innovation, business creation and valorization of side streams of food production and processing” financed by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism under the Bilateral Cooperation Fund.

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A third of all food globally is lost and wasted. Recognizing food production side streams as valuable raw materials and finding their new applications in different industries is key to a sustainable use of resources and reduction of food waste. Would you care to help us fight for the future of food? We are searching for motivated and talented students who will join us in a School in Iceland and work with us to transform side streams from wasteful to tasteful. Using personal experience and university backgrounds, 10 candidates from Poland and 10 recruits from Iceland will create new concepts and business ideas on how to valorise side streams and reduce food waste.

In a 10-day course coached by professional tutors from Matís Iceland, University of Iceland and Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research (Poland) the participants will explore the most burning topics related to agri-food side streams. How to control them? How to recognize their value? What is their environmental and social imprint? How to manage better and add value to animal and plant-based raw materials? Exposed to state-of-the art enterprises and top-class experts they will design and develop business models to find the new value in waste. Participants will work in interdisciplinary teams, identifying problems, prototyping viable solutions with a validated value proposition and pitching their projects in front of a panel of professionals.

EEA School in Adding Value to Food Side Streams culminates with a Food Hackathon that will give students the floor to put their new knowledge and skills into work!

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

Application and details here.

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Radio Academy of Healthy Eating in the air again! This is the 2nd edition of a popular series of radio broadcasts starring scientists from the Institutte of Animal Reprouction and Food Research PAS. We are back with a next serving of knolwedge about food and healthy eating habits.

From August 10 to September 10, every Tuesday and Frida 1:00-2:00 PM, you will get a unique Chance to meet with the food research experts – microbiologists, chemists, biologists and food technlogists, who will familiarise you the facts and curiosities on heatly eating and dispel myths around nutriton. The campaign is a part of the EIT Food #AnnualFoodAgenda project.

Can maternal diet influence the health of both her children but also the next generations? What is a TOFI syndrome when it comes to obesity? How can we protect oursleves from pathogenic bacteria in our kitchen? Why is it worth to reach for fish from close breeding systems? Who flexitarians are? Are you one of them? What role does rasperries play in a fight against liver malfunctions? How to produce natural probiotics yourself? These are just a few topics the researchers will elaborate upon in the upcoming #AnnualFoodAgenda campaign.

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In the latest Journal Citation Reports citation ranking, Reproductive Biology quarterly was classified in the fourth quartile (Q4) with IF₂₀₂₀ = 2.376 and IF_{5 Year} = 2.543. This is the highest Impact Factor in the history of the journal. Compared to last year’s assessment, the indicator increased by 0.514 points. (więcej…)

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