Current Focus
IFR aims to fulfil a UK and international leadership role in delivering:
- fundamental food & health research
- applied and translational research in food & health for societal benefit
- high level training in food and health research
- effective networks with:
- academic and research centres for research and training
- food industry for strategic research and knowledge exchange
IFR is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from the Biotechnology and the Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
IFR science aims to meet the challenges of supplying safe, nutritious food that promotes healthy ageing now and in the future. IFR provides underpinning science for government and the food manufacturing industry.
IFR science strategy aims to understand the working of the intestinal tract, how food-borne bacteria can cause human disease, and how the chemical and physical nature of our food influences health and can add value to the food chain. We have strategic relationships with other BBSRC institutes, the University of East Anglia and Imperial College, London.
IFR scientists are advancing understanding of:
- the fundamental biological processes within the gut, involving the interaction between food, the microbes that live in the GI-tract (microbiota) and the human gut epithelium
- how nutrients and other food components pass into the blood stream and affect our health
- the survival and growth of foodborne microbial pathogens
The Institute is uniquely positioned to contribute to understanding how food can enhance health, thus contributing to the quality of life of individuals and the economic health of the nation. We address the Biological Sciences Research Council's three key strategic research priorities :
- Bioscience for a sustainable supply of sufficient, affordable, nutritious and safe food, adapting to a rapidly changing world
- Basic bioscience underpinning health driving advances for better health across the life course and improved quality of life, reducing the need for medical and social intervention
- Bioenergy and industrial biotechnology biofuels and industrial materials from novel biological sources, reducing dependency on petrochemicals and helping the UK to become a low carbon economy
Read more about this topic: Institute Of Food Research
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