Many of our projects draw on the expertise of staff and researchers who are based in different parts of the University, and the Universitys Human Nutrition Research Centre (HNRC) facilitates this cross-disciplinary work. It is quite usual for scientists, nutritionists and social scientists from research institutes in the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development to pool their expertise and work together.

PhD supervision covers a broad spectrum of research areas from molecular studies, addressing links between nutrition and genes, through to research on diet and public health. Many of our studies address issues from different viewpoints. For example, work on food quality explores both consumer and producer perspectives including aspects of sensory evaluation, consumer acceptability and the effects of agronomic and production environments on nutrient and phytochemical composition of food. Our interest in the biochemistry of foods extends to pharmacology through the study of medicinal properties of plants.