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. 2022 Sep;47(3):366-373.
doi: 10.1111/nbu.12565. Epub 2022 Jun 16.

EDESIA: Plants, Food and Health: A cross-disciplinary PhD programme from crop to clinic

Ian M Clark  1 , Aedin Cassidy  2 , Audrey Heppleston  1 , Mark Bal  3 , Yvie Morgan  4 , Alicia Nicklin  5 , Yang Yue  4 , Aryana Zardkoohi  5 , Cathie Martin  4
Affiliations

EDESIA: Plants, Food and Health: A cross-disciplinary PhD programme from crop to clinic

Ian M Clark et al. Nutr Bull. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

In an era where preventive medicine is increasingly important due to an ageing population and rising obesity, optimised diets are key to improving health and reducing risk of ill health. The Wellcome Trust-funded, EDESIA: Plants, Food and Health: a cross-disciplinary PhD programme from Crop to Clinic (218 467/Z/19/Z) focuses on investigating plant-based nutrition and health, from crop to clinic, drawing on the world-class interdisciplinary research expertise of partner institutions based on the Norwich Research Park (University of East Anglia, John Innes Centre, Quadram Institute and Earlham Institute). Through a rotation-based programme, EDESIA PhD students will train in a wide range of disciplines across the translational pathway of nutrition research, including analyses of epidemiological datasets, assessment of nutritional bioactives, biochemical, genetic, cell biological and functional analyses of plant metabolites, in vitro analyses in tissue and cell cultures, investigation of efficacy in animal models of disease, investigation of effects on composition and functioning of the microbiota and human intervention studies. Research rotations add a breadth of knowledge, outside of the main PhD project, which benefits the students and can be brought into project design. This comprehensive PhD training programme will allow the translation of science into guidelines for healthy eating and the production of nutritionally improved food crops, leading to innovative food products, particularly for prevention and treatment of chronic diseases where age is a major risk factor. In this article, we summarise the programme and showcase the experiences of the first cohort of students as they start their substantive PhD projects after a year of research rotations.

Keywords: ageing; diet; fruit and vegetables; health; plant foods.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Multidisciplinary research strengths in nutrition across the Norwich Research Park
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Structure of EDESIA: Plants, Food and Health: a cross‐disciplinary PhD programme from crop to clinic. NRP, Norwich Research Park
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Norwich Science Festival 2021—EDESIA students
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Research can be fun—potato harvesting and chip tasting (Yang Yue)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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