News
Report on the First HNH Science Day (4th of February 2025)
The Division of Human Nutrition and Health came together on the 4th of February to celebrate our science and share our latest findings on the topic ‘Blood and Guts’ - the role of Gut Heath and Metabolic measures in Nutrition Research’. The day was kicked off with an inspiring opening Keynote lecture from Dr. Dave Mela (Nutrition scientist, advisor, and consultant), who challenged the audience with his talk : ‘Crop-circles, Zebra’s and Zombies’. This was followed by three excellent scientific sessions on inter-connected topics related to food structure, digestion, metabolism and microbiome that were chaired by session coordinators from across the division.
Session 1: ‘Food Structure, Nutrient Absorption, Digestion and Metabolism’ (Chairs: Markus Stieger and Alida Melse-Boonstra)
Session 2: ‘Microbiome Metabolites and Colonic Fermentation’ (Chairs: Josep Rubert and Guido Hooiveld)
Session 3: ‘The Importance of Fibre for supporting Gut and Metabolic Health’ (Chair: Dieuwertje Kok)
The day concluded with a lively session on the ‘trials and tribulations’ of the HNH division and experiences of those who run our many clinical trials through our unique Human Research Uni. This session was chaired by Dr. Guido Camps and included diverse and entertaining contributions from clinical trials at the Division and beyond. A full list of all talks and topics can be found at the below link to the program of the day. The organizing team would like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Mela for his keynote, to the session coordinators for their work inbuilding such a comprehensive and diverse program, and to all speakers for their great presentations! We are exhausted and inspired at the end of a first (excellent) HNH Science Day, and we look forward to next year’s edition and welcome feedback and suggestions on how we can improve the day in the future. If you have suggestions or feedback, please share them via office.hn@wur.nl