Join us to celebrate a special milestone for our new professors and hear about their inspiring career journeys. Doors for this event will open at 16.45, with the lectures to commence at 17.00. A drinks reception will be held immediately after the lecture at 18:00.

Please note that registration will close at midnight the Sunday before the lecture.

Professor Jordana Bell

Can we escape our genes? Understanding the genome

Abstract

In my inaugural lecture, I will reflect on my career journey in human genetics, where I have tried to understand how our genome shapes health and the extent to which we can modify the genetic basis of disease. I will discuss some of the approaches that I have undertaken to address specific questions in this field, focusing on genetic and epigenetic regulation of gene function. Along the way, I will also highlight key challenges and achievements that shaped this journey, including chance, negative findings, persistence, and the importance of international collaborations and mobility. Lastly, I will speculate on future directions in the field, including how we can move beyond thinking about human genetics of disease in isolation, to considering humans in the wider environmental context, including their interactions with microbes.  

Biography

Professor Jordana Bell studies how our genome contributes to human health, ageing, and disease. She studied at McGill University (BSc) and University of British Columbia (MSc) in Canada, and completed her doctoral degree on genetic interactions in complex traits at the University of Oxford. She was subsequently a Wellcome Trust funded fellow at the Universities of Chicago and Oxford, where her work shifted towards human epigenomics.

Since joining King’s in 2012, Jordana has established a research programme in population epigenomics where her primary focus is to understand the processes shaping epigenetic variation in human populations and its biomedical significance. Over the past 15 years, Jordana’s research interests have expanded to the human microbiota, including how epigenetics contributes to microbial gene function and its relevance to human health.

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Professor Sarah Berry

Research to Real Life: Nutrition Science at Your Fingertips

Abstract

In this inaugural lecture, Sarah will explore the evolving landscape of nutrition research. She will highlight the complexity of food beyond a simple list of nutrients and outline the importance of food structure in modulating its health effects. The lecture will delve into the challenges of unravelling this complexity of food alongside the complexity of who we are and how we eat, highlighting the value of novel technologies, remote clinical testing, and community science to unravel the intricate interplay between diet, individual variability, and health outcomes. The discussion will cover how these innovative methodologies and app-based approaches can enhance data collection and analysis beyond traditional academic settings, ultimately empowering individuals to make meaningful dietary changes in a challenging food landscape.

Biography

Sarah Berry is a Professor in Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. Her research interests relate to the influence of dietary components on cardiometabolic disease risk, with particular focus on; personalised nutrition, postprandial lipid metabolism and food and fat structure. Since commencing her research career at King’s in 2004, she has been the academic leader for many randomised controlled trials in cardio-metabolic health, and has secured significant research funding.

Sarah is also the lead nutrition scientist for the PREDICT programme of research, assessing the multiple inter-related dietary and lifestyle factors shaping our health in >300,000 people. This research is forging a new way forward in the design and implementation of large-scale, remote nutrition research studies integrating novel technologies, community science and AI. Sarah is also an active science communicator across all media platforms.