PhD Studentship in Food and Nutritional Science

Project title:  Does a coffee a day keep the doctor away? Investigating the impact of coffee on cardiometabolic health

Department/School: Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy

Supervisors:  Dr Charlotte Mills, University of Reading (primary supervisor)

Prof. Rikard Landberg, Chalmers University of Technology; Dr Anisha Wijeyesekera, University of Reading; Prof. Denise Robertson, University of Surrey (co- supervisors)

Project Overview:   

Coffee is an extremely popular beverage worldwide; 95 million cups per day are consumed in the UK alone. Historically, there has been debate about the health impacts of consuming coffee, however recent findings from observational studies have provided evidence that drinking 3-5 cups of coffee per day is protective against cardiometabolic diseases.  These studies, however, do not prove causality; randomised controlled trials are needed.

Coffee is a chemically complex beverage and contains many different bioactive component (e.g. polyphenols, alkaloids, melanoidins, diterpenes), which are likely to differ depending on how the coffee is consumed; this makes it hard to fully understand what is driving these health effects. Identifying biomarkers of different coffee consumption would contribute towards understanding the health effects. This complexity is exasperated by the observation of large inter-individual variation in response to coffee; some individuals seem to have marked health responses, whereas others do not. It is not clear what is driving this, although it is possible that it is a combination of genetic polymorphisms and gut microbiota composition.

The objective of this project is to understand the impact of coffee consumption on cardiometabolic health.

In this project the student will:

• 1) Analyse a variety of coffee prepared by different methods for bioactive compound content
• 2) Perform a randomised controlled trial to test the impact of coffee on cardiometabolic health
• 3) Investigate the inter-individual variation in response to coffee on cardiometabolic health
• 4) Identify biomarkers of coffee consumption and to predict cardiometabolic disease risk

 Eligibility: 

• Applicants should hold or expect to gain a minimum of a 2:1 Bachelor Degree or equivalent in nutrition, health and food sciences or broadly related subject (e.g. life sciences, biochemistry or biomedical sciences).
• Due to restrictions on the funding this studentship is open to UK applicants.

Funding Details:   

• Starts October 2023
• 3 year award
• Funding covers full UK tuition fees plus UKRI stipend

*Important notes*

• 1) Please quote the reference ‘GS23-013’ in the ‘Scholarships applied for’ box which appears within the Funding Section of your on-line application.
• 2) When you are prompted by the online application system to upload a research proposal, please omit this step as the project is already defined.

Application Deadline:  3^rd March 2023

Further Enquiries:  

Please note that, where a candidate is successful in being awarded funding, this will be confirmed via a formal studentship award letter; this will be provided separately from any Offer of Admission and will be subject to standard checks for eligibility and other criteria. 

For further details please contact sst.pgr@reading.ac.uk

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