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'Science+Innovation' reflects IFR's latest science discoveries, and demonstrates its economic impact

May 2010: 'Science+Innovation' issue 1:10 published

S+I reflects IFR's latest science discoveries, and demonstrates its economic impact

IFR for Business

The Food and Health Network, IFR’s knowledge transfer portal.
www.foodandhealthnetwork.com

Food & Health Network

IFR Extra, a commercial subsidiary of IFR, providing food science solutions - fast!
www.ifrextra.co.uk
IFR Extra

Featured Video

Dr Arnoud van Vliet and Dr Mark Reuter explain how Biofilm production aids Campylobacter survival

Welcome to the
Institute of Food Research

IFR is a world leader in research into harnessing food for health and controlling food-related diseases. Our scientists address the UK’s Grand Challenges of obesity and healthy ageing by defining the relationship between food, diet and health, and they are making a vital contribution to the food security agenda. 

We undertake internationally-ranked fundamental, strategic and applied research with high socio-economic impact, making a real difference to quality of life. 

How does broccoli stop prostate cancer?

Light has been cast on the interaction between broccoli consumption and reduced prostate cancer risk. Researchers at IFR have found that sulforaphane, a chemical found in broccoli, interacts with cells lacking a gene called PTEN to reduce the chances of prostate cancer developing.

Read More...

Our Research Themes

Integrated Biology of the
Gastro Intestinal Tract

Integrated Biology of the GI TractWe aim to understand how the major components of the GI Tract - the bacteria, the epithelial cells lining the gut, and the immune system interact to preserve gut health. This will help explain how and why these interactions go wrong in chronic disorders such as food allergy, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer.

Plant Natural Products and Health

Some key plant natural products are associated with potential health benefits.  Our research extends from their synthesis and accumulation in plants, through their metabolism and excretion in humans, their biological interactions with human tissues and resultant downstream effects upon health.  Collaboration with plant scientists and clinically-orientated researchers is a key feature.

Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens

Foodborne bacterial pathogens continue to cause public health and economic concerns in the UK and worldwide.  Our research combines mathematical biology with experimental science to answer fundamental questions and to deliver scientifically exciting and applicable outputs aimed at removing pathogens from the food chain and generating savings for the health service.

Food Structure and Health

To help prevent diet-related conditions such as obesity, diabetes, allergy and some cancers we need to maximise the nutritional benefit of the food we eat.  Scientists at IFR are discovering how the structure of food responds to the gut environment and how this in turn affects the digestion of food, release and uptake of nutrients.

 

Mission-driven Institutes

IFR is one of six mission-driven Institutes sponsored by the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Institutes provide critical national capability and expertise in strategically important areas, and are central to delivering BBSRC’s vision and priorities.

IFR research maps closely onto  BBSRC’s key strategic research priorities :

  • Food Security  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

Other BBSRC mission-driven Institutes

John Innes Centre
The Genome Analysis Centre
Babraham Institute
Institute for Animal Health
Rothamsted Research

Latest NewsSubscribe to the IFR newsfeed

  • Food Allergy scientists meet
    July 2010
    Scientists involved in developing better tests for food allergens gathered recently at LGC to share the latest developments in tackling the growing problem of food allergy.
  • Prize-winning allergy poster
    July 2010
    Dr Thomas Aldick won a prize for his poster at the 29th Congress of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI2010).
  • IFR and FHN will help create the ‘World Food Network’
    July 2010
    The Institute of Food Research, and the IFR Food and Health Network, are set to play a part in the creation of the ‘World Food Network,’ an international capabilities network based around innovation in the food sector.
  • Understanding Complex Emulsions
    July 2010
    New work from the Institute of Food Research has shown how sugar beet pectin acts as an efficient emulsifier, using a technique that could be used to unravel in the finest detail how such important food ingredients work.
  • Award for IFR scientist
    June 2010
    IFR post-doctoral scientist Valeria Giosafatto has been awarded a prize for her work on the enzyme transglutaminase as a biotechnological tool for the production of edible films to be used in active packaging. 
  • HRH The Duke of York visits the Norwich Research Park
    June 2010
    HRH The Duke of York visited the Norwich Research Park on Friday 25th June. Scientists at the Institute of Food Research showed The Duke of York their 'Model Gut'
  • Norfolk scientists launch ground-breaking hayfever research
    June 2010
    Experts at IFR, the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, are investigating whether yoghurt type drinks can help bring relief to hay fever summer suffering.
  • Public Participation Can Strengthen Food Risk Studies
    May 2010
    The inclusion of activists and members of the general public on teams of technical experts can, in some cases, beneficially expand the focus of food risk reviews, according to a new study. 

  • Biofilm production aids campylobacter survival
    March 2010
    Scientists at the Institute of Food Research have found a way that the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter can survive in the environment. Campylobacter is the main cause of food poisoning in Europe and America

  • National Science and Engineering Week at the Institute of Food Research
    March 2010
    The Institute of Food Research is involved in a number of events to mark National Science and Engineering Week 2010, giving a chance to find out about some of the valuable work on understanding the relationship between us and the food we eat.