Dr Sonia Fonseca

Researcher

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Gut microbes in health and disease

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My research has been mainly related to food microbiology, not only in terms of assessing food quality and safety but also studying the microbial ecology occurring in food products.

In 2013, I finished my PhD entitled “Effect of the addition of starter cultures on the physicochemical, microbiological and sensory properties of Galician Chorizo”, where I described the microbiota of a traditional meat product made under different manufacturing conditions.

In 2017, I was awarded a post-doctoral grant by Alfonso Martin Escudero Foundation to join the Gut Health and Food Safety Programme at the Institute of Food Research, where I have the opportunity to apply the experience I gathered in food microbiology to the field of human health.

My current research interests include the diet-gut-microbiome-brain axis, its importance in disease and how the production of potentially pathogenic and/or beneficial microbial metabolites can be altered through nutrition- and microbe-based interventions. I am also involved in a project which aims to evaluate the metabolic and pathological effects of high-fat diet on autophagy deficient mice.

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