EDESIA: Plants, Food and Health: a Cross-disciplinary PhD Programme from Crop to Clinic

In an era where preventive medicine is increasingly important due to an ageing population and rising rates of obesity, optimised diets are key to improving health and reducing risk of ill health.

The EDESIA PhD programme will focus on plant-based nutrition and health from crop to clinic, drawing on the world-class interdisciplinary research expertise of institutions based at the Norwich Research Park. Students will train in a wide range of disciplines across the translational pathway of nutrition research, including assessment of nutritional bioactives, biochemical, genetic, cell biological and functional analyses of plant metabolites, in vitro analyses in tissue and cell cultures, investigation of efficacy in animal models of disease, investigation of effects on composition and functioning of the microbiota, human intervention studies, and analyses of epidemiological datasets.

This programme allows the translation of science into guidelines for healthy eating and the production of nutritionally improved food crops, leading to innovative food products, particularly for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases where age is a major risk factor.