PhD Projects
InflAIM supports the development of young researchers. Present projects are listed below:
Current Phd Projects under inflAIM
Inflammation, plant-based nutrition, and the evolution of multiple long-term conditions
Postgraduate Researcher Magdalena Brandner , EDESIA PhD Programme
Magdalena's PhD studies focus on the impacts of plants and bioactive compounds within diets on multi-morbidity. Her project is supervised by Professor Ailsa Welch, Prof Alex MacGregor (Norwich Medical School, UEA) and Dr. Maria Traka (Quadram Institute Bioscience)
As a part of her PhD, she previously completed a systematic scoping review looking at the evidence around diet, dietary patterns, nutrients and bioactive compounds in relation to multi-morbidity, forming the basis of her projects with UK Biobank and eBASIS. Her Biobank project will explore relationships between plants in our diet and multimorbidity with the goal to interlink this with the database eBASIS to shed light on the complex interactions of bioactive compounds within dietary patterns and their effect on inflammation and multiple long-term conditions.
Magdalena's research is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is part of the EDESIA PhD Programme
Research Groups:
Department of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine, Norwich Medical School
Food & Health Group, Quadram Institute Biosciences
Biomarkers for sarcopenia: nutritional, clinical and imaging biomarkers and the age-related decline in skeletal muscle health
Jamie’s PhD research focuses on relationships between blood- and imaging-based biomarkers and measures of skeletal muscle health: muscle mass, muscle strength and physical function. Her project is supervised by Professor Ailsa Welch, Dr Max Yates, Dr Donnie Cameron (Norwich Medical School, UEA) and Dr Cathrina Edwards (Quadram Institute Bioscience).
As part of her PhD, she is working on four projects with the overall aim of identifying biomarkers that are related to sarcopenia: the age-related decline in skeletal muscle health. This work may help identify biomarkers that are useful for assessing sarcopenia risk or diagnosis, for monitoring disease progression, or for assessing the effectiveness of preventive or treatment strategies. This work may also suggest nutritional or metabolic targets for intervention. Her GESTALT (Genetic and Epigenetic Signatures of Translational Aging Laboratory Testing) project explores the effect of age on different CT and MRI measures of skeletal muscle composition, and how these measures relate to muscle strength. Her BLSA (Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging) project explores associations between a wide range of clinical and nutritional biomarkers skeletal muscle health. Following prior work by members of her supervisory team, her work in the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer) Norfolk cohort focuses specifically on vitamin C: how dietary intakes and blood concentrations relate to muscle strength and physical function. This work formed the basis of her final project, the VICS study, which aims to investigate the effect of vitamin C supplementation on skeletal muscle health and mitochondrial function in older women.
Jamie’s research is funded by the Wellcome Trust EDESIA PhD Programme.