Experience

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  University of reading

  Mar 2012 - Sept 2016

  Doctoral researcher

  My PhD was a joint fellowship between the University of Reading, UK and the FEM Institute in San Michele, Trentino, Italy under the supervision of Professor Julie Lovegrove and Dr Kieran Tuohy. My project focused on exploring the effects of bioactive components in apple, polyphenols and fibre, on gut microbiota composition and activity, lipid metabolism, vascular function and other markers of cardiovascular disease in hypercholesterolaemic subjects. During this work I gained an extensive experience with all the aspects of a dietary human intervention study since I was fully responsible of designing (performing power calculation, writing ethical application) and running the daily activities of a randomised controlled trial named AVAG (effect of Apples on cardioVascular risk And Gut health study). These included recruitment, performing screening and study visits and sample analysis of biological samples i.e. blood, urine and faeces. Moreover, I used several instruments and analytical techniques such as Laser Doppler Iontophoresis (LDI), Pulse Wave Analysis (PWA), ELISA, Luminex and MagPix assays, Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) and RT-PCR. Moreover, I run in vitro models of the human gut to explore associations between food components and gut microbiota composition and activity and I have experience in next generation sequencing data analysis (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing). Finally, I performed statistical analysis and wrote up articles for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Show less

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  Fondazione edmund mach

  Mar 2012 - Oct 2012

  Doctoral researcher

  During the first part of my PhD, I set up in vitro models of the human gut (batch cultures) and three-stage continues gut models, mimicking the proximal and distal part of the colon, to explore the effect of apple components (polyphenols and fiber) on gut microbiota composition and activity.

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  Fondazione edmund mach

  Mar 2015 - Feb 2016

  Doctoral researcher

  During this time in the FEM institute, in Trentino, Italy, I used Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) to quantitatively measure faecal microbiota population of specific taxa, in stool samples of in vitro and human dietary experiments (AVAG study). Moreover, I performed stool DNA extraction and next generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis on raw stool DNA sequencing data, using the QIIME open source bioinformatics pipeline, to explore the effect of apple intake on the overall faecal microbiota community. Show less

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  University of reading

  Jun 2017 - Sept 2021

  Postdoctoral research associate

  Managing and running the day-to-day activities of a large BBSRC project named RISSCI (Reading, Imperial, Surrey Saturated fat Cholesterol Intervention) aiming to identify metabolic and gut related mechanisms to explain variation in cholesterol response to dietary saturated fat in human subjects (PIs Professor Bruce Griffin and Professor Julie Lovegrove). I have been managing and running two human dietary intervention studies (one chronic and one postprandial). I have been responsible for designing (performing power calculation, writing ethical application) and running the daily activities (recruitment, screening and study visits) of the human studies, performing biological sample analysis (blood, urine, faeces), measuring markers of cardiovascular disease (using Elisa, Luminex, Randox autoanalyzer), extracting faecal DNA and measuring gut microbiota composition using FISH coupled with flow cytometry and next generation sequencing (NGS). Show less

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  Henan university of science and technology

  Dec 2018 - Dec 2018

  Visiting lecturer in human nutrition
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  University of glasgow

  Oct 2021 - now

  Lecturer in human nutrition