Diet and Nutrition Research Committee

Chairs

Associate Professor Heidi Staudacher

Accredited Practising Dietitian
Diet, Gut and Brain Group, Department of Medicine,
Monash University, Australia

Research interests:

• Diets and supplements for DGBI
• Dietary trial design and methodology in DGBI
• Placebo and nocebo response in diet research
• Diet-microbiome interactions in DGBI

Contact: heidi.staudacher@monash.edu

Professor Kevin Whelan

Dietitian
Nutritional Sciences, Kings College London

Research interests:

• Dietary Fibre
• Probiotics & prebiotics
• FODMAPS and food additives in DGBI and IBD

Contact: kevin.whelan@kcl.ac.uk

Committee members

Dr Dipesh H Vasant

Gastroenterologist
Neurogastroenterology Unit, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester University, NHS Foundation Trust, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Research interests:

• Influence of sociocultural, biopsychosocial factors and dietary patterns on the epidemiology of DGBI
• Novel methods of upscaling and delivering integrated multidisciplinary DGBI care including brain-gut behavioural therapies

Contact: Dipesh.Vasant@manchester.ac.uk

Dr Sanna Nybacka

Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Clinical dietitian
Department of Life Sciences, Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine,
Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Research interests:

• Dietary interventions
• Nutrition epidemiology
• Dietary assessment

Contact: sanna.nybacka@gu.se

Professor Chloe Melchior

Gastroenterologist
Department of Gastroenterology, INSERM, Nutrition, Inflammation and Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis, CHU Rouen, CIC-CRB 1404 Univ Rouen Normandie, Normandie Univ, France

Research interests:

• Association of eating disorders (including ARFID) and IBS
• Impact of low FODMAP diet in IBS pathophysiology
• Role of microbiota and metabolites in IBS
• Role of fructose malabsorption in IBS

Contact: Chloe.melchior@chu-rouen.fr

Dr Madison Simons

Gastrointestinal psychologist
Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
Cleveland Clinic Foundation, United States of America

Research interests:

• Precipitants and consequences of dietary modification
• Food-related anxiety
• Glycaemic variability and diet

Contact: simonsm3@ccf.org

Dr Giada De Palma

Microbiologist
Department of Medicine
Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Canada

Research interests:

• Diet-gut microbiome interactions in IBS
• Translational research in DGBI
• Animal models
• Gut microbiome analysis

Contact: depalma@mcmaster.ca

Dr Georgina Williams

Accredited Practising Dietitian
Immune Health Research Program
Hunter Medical Research Institute, University of Newcastle, Australia

Research interests:

• Diet-microbiome assessment methods
• Diet-microbiome interactions in DGBI and Crohns disease
• Diet-immune interactions in DGBI

Contact: Georgina.williams@newcastle.edu.au

Research