Professor Baukje de Roos

Biography

Baukje de Roos has a strong international record in the research area of sustainable nutrition and food systems, supported by Scottish Government and UKRI industry funding. Her research focusses on i) primary data collection and diagnosis of key challenges, ii) data-driven approaches to model successful interventions, iii) the development of data support tools for policy implementation, and iv) the execution of place-based case studies and intervention trials. One of her key interests is the seafood supply chain, where she works with agricultural economists and key stakeholders to demonstrate how production and supply chains could be better aligned with consumption and dietary recommendations, taking into account consumer demand, whilst optimising nutritional and sustainability impact.

She leads the Scottish Government-funded Strategic Research Programme 2022-2027 Topic “Food & Drink Improvement, and Diet & Food Safety”, with interdisciplinary and cross-Institute policy-driven research across 12 five-year projects. Within this Topic, she is responsible for research on the mapping of fish, crop, dairy and meat supply chains, and modelling of transitions to more sustainable production and consumption patterns. She uses novel study designs (N-of-1 studies) to identify drivers and barriers for adopting healthy and sustainable food swaps in young adults, employing our recently developed Food Swap tool that uses linear programming to optimise ‘healthiness’, ‘carbon footprint’, and ‘cost’ to identify the most important potential food switches in real-time UK diets.

Baukje de Roos also has a consolidated research programme on nutrigenomics and precision nutrition, with current work focussing on developing and implementing interdisciplinary precision and personalised nutrition approaches to improve population and individual health, as well as identifying responders and non-responders to interventions, supported by RCUK and industry funding.

Prizes and Awards

Buckland Professor 2023, awarded by the Trustees of the Buckland Foundation. Every year since 1930, the Foundation has appointed a 'Buckland Professor', tasked with giving public talks throughout the United Kingdom on matters of current concern to fisheries and aquaculture. 

Research Overview

• Modelling of food systems and human health outcomes, especially in relation to sea food consumption.
• Modelling healthy, sustainable and affordable diets
• Clinical and dietary intervention trials assessing how diets, foods and nutrients affect disease risk and resilience to disease development
• Personalised and precision nutrition and biomarker discovery

Current Research

Seafood and human health

• Investigating the effects of traditional versus sustainable feeding regimes of farmed salmon on heart health, micronutrient status, inflammation, oxidative stress and gut health in the Scottish population (Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services)
• Development of a metric for assessing the impacts on nutrition and health of agroecosystems producing farmed seafood (Immana)
• Strategies to balance enhanced fish consumption with sustainable fish production (BBSRC)

Modelling healthy, sustainable and affordable diets

• Modelling foods/drinks that drive healthiness, carbon footprint and costs within UK diets to identify ‘food switches’ in real-time UK diets (Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services)

 Precision nutrition

• Modelling individual responses to healthier diets and new ways to quantify the importance of physiology and behaviour for successful dietary changes (Unilever, BBSRC)
• Individual efficacy of anthocyanins in blueberries to affect metabolic health (ByHealth)
• Inter-individual variation in response to consumption of plant food bioactives and determinants involved (EU COST Action POSTIVe)

Clinical and dietary intervention trials

• Development of nutritional and exercise strategies to increase resilience and improve health outcomes (BBSRC)

Collaborations

• Anne Wanders, Liesbeth Zandstra, Peter Zock (Unilever, the Netherlands)
• Paul Fernandes (School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen)
• Lorraine Brennan (UCD, Ireland)
• Alan Sneddon (Rowett, University of Aberdeen)
• Dave Little, Frances Murray, Alexandra Pounds (University of Stirling)
• Nanna Roos (University of Copenhagen)
• Eleanor Grieve (University of Glasgow)
• Gulshan Ara, Santhia Ireen, Tahmeed Ahmed (icddr,b, Bangladesh)
• Abdullah-Al Mamun (Noakhali Science and Technology University, Bangladesh)
• Christine Morand, Claudine Manach (Université Clermont Auvergne, INRA, France)
• Felix Zhang, Jiehua Chen (ByHealth, China)
• Niamh O'Kennedy (SIS, UK)
• Dr Jetty Lee, Hong Kong University, China
• Dr Vasanthi Siruguri / Dr Radhika Madhari, National Institute of Nutrition, India
• Prof Marianne Geleijnse, Wageningen University, the Netherlands
• Prof Anne-Marie Minihane, University of East Anglia, UK
• Prof Zoltan Takats, Imperial College London
  

Funding and Grants

2019-2023. By-Health, Dupont, AkerBiomarine and Indena. An open label parallel randomised trial to assess the effects of a MOnitored PErsonalised Diet and Supplement intervention on the remission of metabolic syndrome (MOPEDS). £174,122

2020-2021. UKIERI. UKIERI Mobility Programme: Study in India. £33,680

2020-2021. GCRF – SFC. Sustainable Intensification : Integrating Aquaculture into Food Systems. £9,800

2019-2020. MRC Development Award. Mycotoxin exposure, intestinal inflammation and childhood stunting in India. £23,915

2019-2023. MRC UK Consortium for MetAbolic Phenotyping (MAP UK). £2,138,277

2018-2022. BBSRC DTP / Unilever. Modelling individual responses to healthier diets and new ways to quantify the importance of physiology and behaviour for successful dietary changes. £144K

2017. BBSRC GCRF IAA. Introduction of health technologies to monitor dietary intake in relation to metabolic health in India. £11K

2016-2020. EASTBIO. Strategies to balance enhanced fish consumption with sustainable fish production. £70K

2016-2018. Immana-DFID Aquatic Food for Health and Nutrition (AQN): A metric for assessing the impacts on nutrition and health of agroecosystems producing farmed seafood. £250K

2016-2021. Scottish Government (part of Rowett rolling grant). ‘(Shell)fish and human health’. ~£1M

2016-2020. By Health, China. Efficacy of anthocyanins in blueberries to affect metabolic health in a Chinese/Asian population living in China and in the UK. £90K

Teaching Responsibilities

In the past years I have led and facilitated the successful Rowett expansion in Nutrition postgraduate teaching (PGT), from the delivery of a 1-year MSc Human Nutrition programme (since 1984) to that of a portfolio of face-to-face and new on-line MSc programmes, courses, a Massive Open Online course (MOOC) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) (‘on demand’) offerings. 

I have developed a Rowett teaching strategy that ensures that we capitalise on recent successes to ensure that we can sustain and further develop the growth of our nutrition PGT and CPD nutrition programmes and courses. I pro-actively participate in the development and delivery of on-campus lectures (Foundation of Nutrition, Nutrition & Health, Molecular Nutrition and Clinical Nutrition courses) and on-line content and discussion forums (Fundamentals of Human Nutrition and Metabolism, Clinical Nutrition for Disease Prevention, Nutrition and Health through the Life Stages courses, Food Choice and Behaviour CPD, Nutrition and Wellbeing MOOC).