SPEAKERS INFO

DAY ONE, Wednesday 13 April 2106

SESSION

ONE

Chairs: Dr John Smart & Professor David Cameron-Smith

Dr. John Smart, Challenge Director, High-Value Nutrition, New Zealand Dr John Smart brings a wealth of knowledge to his position as High-Value Nutrition Challenge Director from a career in the dairy industry and research management. He graduated with a PhD in biochemistry from Massey University and went on to gain a Masters in Management at Victoria University in Wellington. He spent 17 years in the New Zealand dairy industry across science, marketing and management roles with several notable successes in commercialising research. After leaving the dairy industry he was a Group Manager for New Zealand’s public science funding agency (Foundation for Research Science and Technology) for over 6 years responsible for investments of over $450m a year. In 2007 he was appointed Director Research Management at the University of Auckland before joining the National Science Challenge High-Value Nutrition team from its beginning in 2014.

Dr Stefan Hajkowicz, Principal Scientist, Australia Dr Stefan Hajkowicz is a senior principal scientist working in the field of strategic foresight at Data61 | CSIRO. Stefan’s research and consulting work helps companies, governments and communities explore plausible futures and make wise strategic choices. He is increasingly focused on the strategic implications of digital technology. His current and recent research projects have examined future trends and scenarios about jobs & employment, property markets, the tourism industry, the construction industry, the manufacturing sector, water supply companies, agricultural industries and food security. Stefan is a world leading scholar in the field of decision theory and has published seminal works on the use multi-objective decision support. His research has contrasted structured versus intuitive approaches to decision making. His decision models have guided investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars and have been used by Australia’s State and Federal Governments to make critical policy choices. Stefan is widely published in the international scientific literature and his most recent book titled “Global Megatrends” is available through CSIRO Publishing. Stefan has a doctorate in geography from the University of Queensland and postgraduate qualifications in economics from the University of New England.

Professor Bruce German, Director of the Foods For Health Institute at UC Davis, USA Professor Bruce German is the Director of the Foods for Health Institute at the University of California Davis, and a food chemist at the university’s Department of Food Science and Technology. His team focuses its research on seeking to understand how to improve food and its ability to deliver improved health. Professor German also specialises in personalised health and his research is developing the means to understand how individual human lipid metabolism responds to the lipid composition of diets. Each person has slightly different responses to diet based on their own genetics, metabolism and nutrition status. One of his goals is to understand the molecular basis of these differences, how to recognize them, and design food strategies to complement those. Professor German has a string of awards and honours from Universities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe and is named on the Most Highly Cited Scientists by ISI Index, from 2002- present.

Professor David Cameron-Smith, Science Director, High-Value Nutrition, New Zealand Professor David Cameron-Smith is an international authority on nutrition and health, and brings those valuable skills to High-Value Nutrition as Science Director. Professor Cameron-Smith is also currently Chair of Nutrition at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute. His appointment to the Chair in Nutrition at the University complements the diverse nutritional research interests within the Liggins Institute and adds to the straegic growth of the University’s trans-disciplinary Food and Health Programme. David graduated with a PhD in nutritional biochemistry from Deakin University, and did his post doctoral training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He is passionate about food for health and unlocking the science behind it. Professor Cameron-Smith’s past research has focused on understanding the biological process of digestion, making and losing muscle and how these change across life’s course.

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SPEAKERS INFO

Patrick Coppens, Regional Director Europe & MEA, EAS Strategies, Belgium Patrick Coppens is an international expert in food law, regulatory procedures and nutrition. He is currently a Regional Director for EAS Strategies in Brussels – a company specialising in regulatory and strategic advice on nutritional products. He has an extensive background in scientific and regulatory affairs and quality assurance and has wide experience in food safety, food labelling, health claims and the addition of nutrients to foods on both a national and international level. Before joining EAS, Patrick chaired the health claims working group of the European food and drinks accociation, FoodDrinkEurope. Patrick has written several publications on food law and worked as an advisor to many trade bodies. He is chair of the Belgian Food Law expert group and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

SESSION

TWO

Chairs: Professor Phil Calder & Professor David Cameron-Smith

Professor Philip Calder, Professor of Nutritional Immunology at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom Professor Phillip Calder is a New Zealander who is currently Professor of Nutritional Immunology at the University of Southampton. His research is broad but focuses on the nutritional modulation of immunity, inflammation and cardiometabolic disease risk. Much of his work has been exploring the metabolism and functionality of fatty acids with particular emphasis on the roles of omega-3 fatty acids. Professor Calder trained at Massey University, the University of Auckland and Oxford University. He has over 500 scientific publications and is listed by Thomson Reuters as a Highly Cited Researcher. Professor Calder has scores of international awards and serves on several professional bodies, advisory and policy groups. His current roles include Chair of Scientific Committee of the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism.

Professor Sally Poppitt, Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Auckland, New Zealand Professor Sally Poppitt is the founding director of the Human Nutrition Unit at Auckland University and currently holds the Fonterra Chair in Human Nutrition. She is also part of the High Value Nutrition Science Leadership team, as principal investigator for metabolic health – researching how food can help problems of obesity and its related diseases, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular health. Sally’s research has long been focused on the prevention and treatment of conditions arising from poor nutrition including overweight and obesity, metabolic dysregulation and diabetic and cardiovascular risk. She has extensive experience in conducting nutrition intervention trials in both developed and developing countries. She has published widely in peer-reviewed scientific journals, been an invited speaker at international nutrition conferences and acted as consultant to the government advisory panels and the New Zealand food industry.

Professor Garth Cooper, University of Auckland, New Zealand Professor Garth Cooper, one of NZ’s foremost biological scientists and co-founder of the Human Nutrition Unit, is currently Professor of Biochemistry and Clinical Biochemistry at the School of Biological Sciences (leading the Proteomics and Biomedicine Research Group), and in the Department of Medicine, University of Auckland. He is Director and Professor of Discovery and Experimental Medicine, Centre for Advanced Discovery & Experimental Therapeutics (CADET), Institute of Human Development, the University of Manchester; and Visiting Professor in Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Oxford, of Hong Kong, and the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His teams work in parallel in both nonclinical models and human clinical trials, applying powerful techniques aimed at understanding the molecular phenotypes of disease, and focusing on the main ageing-related diseases, including diabetes, heart failure, and metabolic disorders of the brain, which has led to the discovery of several new experimental therapies for these conditions.

SPEAKERS INFO

Dr. John Monro, Plant & Food Research, New Zealand Dr John Monro is a principal scientist with Plant & Food Research working on carbohydrate digestion and metabolism. His recent work has included development of the Glycaemic Glucose Equivalents (GGE) measure, which expresses the relative impact of a specified amount of food on blood glucose levels in the same format as nutrient values. He has also developed a similar measure for expressing the functional effects of dietary. Dr Monro's work in association with the New Zealand Food Composition Database led him to an interest in food composition data and motivated him to find guides to healthy food choices that overcame some of the inadequacies of dietary fibre, available carbohydrate, and glycaemic indices. He received his PhD in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry from Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, while employed by the then Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). His initial research was on the structure of plant cell walls, followed by research on the plant cell walls in the ruminant nutrition, and then on dietary fibre in human nutrition, and most recently the digestion of available carbohydrates from foods. He has also completed a Master of Arts degree majoring in physiological/stress psychology.

Dr. Emma Bermingham, AgResearch, New Zealand Emma has a research background in animal nutrition and physiology. She gained her PhD in Animal Science examining the effects of parasite infection on protein metabolism in the lamb at AgResearch and Massey University in 2004. She continued her research interests in the effects of nutrition on animal physiology with post-doctoral positions at Livestock Industries (CSIRO, Australia) and INRA (France) and the Waltham Centre of Pet Nutrition (UK).Emma joined the Food Nutrition & Health Team at AgResearch in 2007 as a FRST postdoctoral research fellow, where she has been primarily involved in the effects of nutrition on intestinal health. She has established a research programme investigating the effects of diet on health outcomes of our pets.

Dr Roger Harker, Plant & Food Research, Auckland, New Zealand Dr Roger Harker is a Principal Scientist at Plant & Food Research based in Auckland where he is Science Group Leader for the Human Responses Group. He is also part of the High-Value Nutrition Science Leadership Team in charge of Consumer Insight, with a focus on Asia. Dr Harker is renowned for his expertise in predictors of consumers perceptions, preferences and purchasing preferences. Specifically his research focuses on understanding the ways in which plant physiological processes influence sensory properties of foods and beverages. He focuses on measurements that relate to human perception of texture taste and odour, and consumer beliefs attitudes and perceptions that influence food choices. His research over the past decade has supported major changes in part of the food industry in New Zealand.

Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh, Director of the Massey Institute of Food Science and Technology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh is a world renowned food scientist and Director of the Massey Institute of Food Science and Technology at Massey University, Palmerston North. He is also the Co-Director of the Riddet Institute, a National Centre of Research Excellence focused on food science and nutrition, and he is part of the High Value Nutrition Science Leadership Team. Professor Singh's research has focused on food colloids, food ingredient functionality, functional foods and food structure-nutrition interface. He has published over 300 research papers in international journals, and is co-inventor of 12 patents which have formed the basis of several commercial innovations. His international standing and outstanding contributions to food science has been recognized by a string of national and international awards, including the Prime Minister’s Science Prize.He serves on several national and international committees advising on food strategy development and implementation.

SPEAKERS INFO

DAY TWO, Thursday 14 April 2106

SESSION ONE Chairs: Distinguished Professor Connie Weaver & Dr John Smart

Distinguished Professor Connie Weaver, Head of the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University, USA Professor Connie Weaver is based at Purdue University in the United States where she is a Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Nutrition Science. Her research interests include mineral bioavailability, calcium metabolism and bone health. More specifically her work looks at calcium metabolism during adolescence and in post-menopausal women – with the goal to determine the influence of diet, gender, actual calcium retention and maximise development of peak bone mass. She is also researching the relationship between dairy intake and calcium intake and body fat maintenance in these groups to helps develop nutritional strategies to prevent osteoporosis later in life. Her current work focuses on dietary patterns to lower risk of hypertension in adolescents and polyphenolic-rich fruits and bone health. Professor Weaver has a string of awards for her work in nutrition and health and serves on several nutrition and science advisory panels through the United States.

Dr Elizabeth Forbes-Blom, Team leader at Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Wellington, New Zealand Dr Elizabeth Forbes-Blom leads a team of immunologists with expertise in inflammatory and infectious diseases at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research based in Wellington. She is also part of the High-Value Nutrition Science Leadership Team – charged with providing better understanding of how food supports respiratory immune defence against infection and manages pollution driven inflammation. Dr Forbes-Blom completed her PhD studies at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the US. Following this, she returned home to New Zealand with the purpose of building a research programme that takes an immunological approach to health and disease to move our understanding beyond local immune responses in the gut to encompass the dynamic interplay between food, the immune cellular networks and the microbiota within.

Dr Odette Shaw, Plant & Food Research , New Zealand Dr Odette Shaw is a scientist in the Food & Wellness Group of the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited. Odette graduated with a PhD in Anatomy from the University of Otago, examining the effect of modulating inflammation following ischaemic brain injury. She then shifted focus and countries to undertake research on inflammation in lung disease at the Lung Institute of Western Australia. She continued working on lung inflammation and immunology at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research before joining PFR. As part of her research Odette has developed an interest in the ability of plant phytochemicals to alter the innate immune system’s response to allergens and the effects on tissue repair mechanisms, particularly the ability to ameliorate fibrosis. Dr Shaw has published over 18 peer-reviewed manuscripts on inflammation, tissue repair and the immune system.

Dr Alison Hodgkinson, AgResearch, New Zealand Dr Alison Hodgkinson is a Senior Scientist in the Dairy Foods Team, at AgResearch Ruakura, Hamilton. Her research is focused on the benefits of milk for the health and nutrition of infants and young children, including the role of early life nutrition on adult health. She obtained her PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Waikato investigating the induction of IgA secretion in bovine milk. Her research experience includes milk components and their bioactivities, mucosal immunology, food allergy; immunoglobulins; and protein biochemistry. Dr Hodgkinson’s current research programs are focused on characterizing the nutrition and health benefits of goat milk-based nutritional formulations, the role milk plays in allergy development, and understanding how milk-processing affects the natural health benefits of milk.

Dr James Dekker, Fonterra, New Zealand Dr James Dekker was recently appointed Programme Manager, Nutrition and Health, at Fonterra. Previous to that, Dr Dekker had spent over 15 years working as a Principal Research Scientist in the area of probiotic bacteria at the Fonterra Research and Development Centre, with particular interest in probiotic health properties, and how to translate laboratory findings of probiotic efficacy into consumer health benefits. Prior to Fonterra, his background included studies in immunology and molecular biology, having worked in postdoctoral positions at the Christchurch School of Medicine (NZ) researching dendritic cells, and at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford University (UK), researching the genetics of asthma. Dr Dekker started his science career with an undergraduate degree from Massy University (NZ) followed by PhD studies at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University.

Dr Nicole Roy, Principal Scientist and Science Team Leader at AgResearch, New Zealand Dr Nicole Roy is a Principal Scientist and the Science Team Leader of Food Nutrition & Health based at AgResearch in Palmerston North. She is also a member of the High-Value Nutrition Science Leadership team – charged with unlocking the science of how food affects gastrointestinal health. Dr Roy completed her PhD in Canada and the United States and postdoctoral studies in Scotland, where she focused on how nutrition and food components can modify inter-organ nutrient partitioning and communication using tracer kinetics, animal models and in vitro models. At AgResearch, Nicole led complex studies of amino acid metabolism in key tissues in lactating ruminants and in growing lambs affected by internal parasites. Nicole is also an Adjunct Associate Professor Senior Lecturer at the Riddet Institute, in Palmerston North.

SPEAKERS INFO

Professor Richard Gearry, University of Otago Richard is currently Professor of Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch and Consultant Gastroenterologist at Christchurch Hospital. He is Medical Director of the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation, Medical Advisor to Crohn’s and Colitis New Zealand, a member of the National Intestinal Failure Governance Group and a Trustee of the Bowel and Liver Trust, Canterbury. After working at Nelson hospital as a house surgeon, he undertook Physician and Gastroenterology training at Christchurch Hospital graduating with his FRACP in 2004. In 2006 he graduated with a PhD from the University of Otago and subsequently completed Fellowships with Professor Peter Gibson at Box Hill Hospital (Melbourne, Australia) and St Mark's Hospital (London, United Kingdom). Richard is one of sixty worldwide expert members of the International Organisation for the study of Inflammatory Bowel DIseases (IOIBD) who meet regularly to discuss and co-ordinate research into the causes and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr Matthew Barnett, AgResearch Matthew is a Senior Research Scientist in AgResearch’s Food Nutrition & Health team. He graduated from the University of Auckland in 2005 with a PhD in Biological Sciences, focusing on how maternal diet during gestation and lactation influences the offspring’s risk of type-2 diabetes. Since 2001 he has worked for AgResearch in several roles (Research Associate, Foundation for Research Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Scientist) and on a variety of topics. He was part of the Nutrigenomics New Zealand collaboration (2004-2014), working to understand how diet and genome interact to influence health, in particular intestinal function. Matthew is currently based at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute, where he is involved in collaborative projects investigating how nutrition influences health throughout life. These include an investigation of nutritional approaches to maintain health during ageing with Professor David Cameron-Smith, and leading the “a2 Milk™ for Gut Comfort” High-Value Nutrition contestable project.

Dr Janine Cooney, Plant & Food Research Dr Janine Cooney is the Team Leader for Physiological Chemistry at Plant & Food Research (PFR) and lead scientist for PFR’s LCMS capability. Her technical expertise covers the spectrum from plant research, food composition, through to animals and human studies, but have in common the need to measure specific analytes to relate chemical measurements to function. Janine’s team specialises in the chemical characterisation and measurement (LCMS, GCMS, GC, HPLC) of small molecules, peptides and proteins, with particular emphasis on differential proteomics and targeted metabolomics for the identification of phytohormones and physiological and nutritional biomarkers in animal studies and human clinical trials. Janine was a member of the HVN expert panel for the gut health and immunity area with a focus on biomarkers.

Dr Tim Angeli, University of Auckland, New Zealand Dr Tim Angeli received a BSE and MSE, both in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan, USA, in 2008 and 2009, respectively. He investigated innovative methods of drug delivery for his MSE research, and also worked at a biotechnology company where he worked on the research and development of a bioartificial kidney. Tim joined the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) in December 2009 as a PhD student with the gastrointestinal (GI) research group. His PhD research focused on investigating the underlying electrophysiological control of the small intestine using high-resolution electrical mapping, culminating in February 2014 with his doctoral thesis, titled ‘Small intestine slow wave activity defined through in vivo high-resolution electrical mapping.’ Tim is now continuing his academic career as a post-doctoral research fellow with the same GI research group at the ABI, where he investigates electrophysiological abnormalities (‘dysrhythmias’) in gastric disorders and develops novel techniques for modulating these dysrhythmias.

SPEAKERS INFO

SESSION TWO

Chairs: Dr John Smart & Professor David Cameron-Smith

Professor Sean Strain, Emeritus Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Ulster, United Kingdom Professor Sean Strain is based at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland where he is Emeritus Professor of Human Nutrition. He is internationally recognised for his micronutrient research – specifically in the areas of trace element nutrition, fatty acid metabolism and in B vitamin metabolism. Professor Strain’s interest in human nutrition follows from a PhD in nutritional biochemistry. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2002 and appointed Order of the British Empire in 2014 for services to nutrition research and education. Other prizes include the British Nutrition Foundation Prize 2012 and the William Evans Fellowship, University of Otago. He is a former President of the Nutrition Society (2010-2013), was Chairman of the Board of the European Nutrition Leadership Programme, Vice-Chair of the Panel on Dietetic Products at Nutrition and Allergies (NDA), and Chairman, NDA Working Group on Claims, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Parma.

Associate Professor Clare Wall, University of Auckland Associate Professor Clare Wall's main research focus is the interrelationship between the determinants of micronutrient status and health outcomes in the paediatric population. The nutritional environment is the new frontier for human adaptation because more and more people are living in environments which are not conducive of good nutrition practices and which are becoming increasingly more challenging. She has been researching this topic by measuring the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies in various paediatric populations and looking at the relationship between nutritional status, dietary intake and health.

Professor Marlena Kruger, Massey University Professor Marlena Kruger is an established academic, a world renowned expert on lipids and bone health. She is also a consultant to Fonterra Brands Singapore Ltd engaging in research development and planning, strategic planning and execution of nutritional trials. Marlena obtained her PhD from the Medical University of South Africa, followed by post-doctoral training firstly at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, followed by period at University of Texas at Austin, USA specialising in protein purification and identification. She migrated to New Zealand in 2000 and established bone and nutrition research at Massey. She became Division leader for Human Nutrition in 2005, and was awarded a personal Chair in the same year. Her main focus in research include dairy foods, bioactives and lipids in bone health. Marlena's current research focusses on food for maintaining bone and joint health and mobility. She has several international collaborators around the area of food for health and mobility.

Dr Roger Hurst, Plant & Food Research Dr Roger Hurst is the Science Group Leader for the Food & Wellness Group of Plant & Food Research Limited. Dr Hurst has experience in the biomedical health area through an academic career at the University of Toronto, Canada ; the Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK ; the Institute of Neurology, London, UK ; and the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. Since joining Plant & Food Research (2007) he has developed an interest in phytochemical compounds and their role in modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, and immunity to aid tissue recovery and repair. Prof Hurst has published over 80 manuscripts and leads research programmes supporting the development of new food products derived from commercial and new fruit cultivars (esp berry fruits) for targeted human health benefits.