Richard J. Fitzgerald
   

holds a BSc (Hons) in biochemistry and a PhD in protein chemistry/enzymology from the National University of Ireland, Cork. Post-doctoral experience at North Carolina State University (USA), University College Cork and as a Senior Research Officer at the Chemistry Department, Teagasc, Moorepark. He joined the University of Limerick (UL) as a Lecturer in the Life/Biological Sciences Department in 1997 and was appointed Associate Professor in 2002. He was awarded a full professorship (personal chair) at UL in 2016. His research interests include protein purification, enzymatic hydrolysis and cross-linking of food proteins, food protein functionality, biologically active peptides and functional food ingredients. He has over 30 years’ experience in both academic and applied food protein ingredients research. He has published >200 papers in peer-reviewed scientific literature, and has authored/co-authored numerous invited book chapters. He also holds patent applications in the area of milk and cereal protein hydrolysate ingredients. He was the recipient of the University of Limerick Award for Research Excellence in 2001. He has coordinated 3 EU-funded projects, applied research projects and numerous industry-funded projects.

 

       
       
      Kenji Sato
    holds a Ph.D. from Kyoto University (1988). He was Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Living Science, Kyoto Prefectural University (1989), Associate Professor at the Faculty of Human Environment, Kyoto Prefectural University (1995-2005), Professor at the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University (2005-2014) and since 2014 he is Professor at the Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. He has received several awards like the Achievement Award for Young Scientists in Fisheries Science (1995), the Technology Award by The Japanese Society for Food Science and Technology (2014) and the Science Merit Award by International Society of Neutraceuticals and Functional Foods (2016). He is Associate Editor of Food Science and Technology Research (since 2016) and Associate Editor of Science of Food (since 2017).
       
       
      Kaustav Majumder
    is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Food Science, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA. He obtained his Ph.D. in Food Science and Technology from the University of Alberta, Canada in 2015, and did his Postdoctoral training at the University of Guelph, Canada. His research program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln explores the beneficial health effect of food-derived bioactive proteins and peptides and evaluates their therapeutic potential for the treatment, prevention, and management of hypertension, type-2 diabetes, and associated metabolic disorders. His research delineates the molecular mechanisms of food-derived bioactive compounds to reduce the pathogenesis of hypertension and related metabolic diseases. The research program also aims to identify the biomarkers and the genetic alteration happen due to the intervention of bioactive food proteins/peptides. Dr. Majumder has published over 25 peer-reviewed papers at international journals, more than 5 invited book chapters, over 50 scientific presentations. He is the guest editor for the Journal ‘Nutrients’ for the special issue ‘Impact of Bioactive Peptides on Human Health” He is also a pilot project leader for Nebraska Center of Prevention of Obesity Diseases, a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence funded by National Institute of Health.
       
       
      Rotimi E. Aluko
    a Certified Food Scientist is a Professor in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He also serves as the Assistant Director of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, Winnipeg. He obtained a PhD (Food Science) degree in 1996 from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. His work focuses on the structure-function properties of bioactive peptides with special focus on oilseeds and pulses. In addition to over 170 journal article publications, Dr. Aluko holds two patents on the antihypertensive properties of plant seed peptides, one of which has been licensed to an industrial partner for commercialization. His work was the first to propose the structural requirements for inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) by food protein-derived with 2-10 amino acid residues. His work has demonstrated in vivo modulation of ACE, renin and antioxidant enzymes by peptides. He is a 2017 “Highly Cited Researcher” in the Agricultural Sciences category, which is recognition given to researchers with peer-reviewed journal citations in the top 1% in the world. Dr. Aluko is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Food Science & Technology, the Institute of Food Technologists and the American Oil Chemists’ Society. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Food Biochemistry and an Associate Editor for Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research.
       
       
      Anna Iwaniak
   

is Associate Professor at the Chair of Food Biochemistry, the Faculty of Food Science of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. She was awarded Marie Curie scholarship for 3-month scientific visit at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire (UK; December 2001-March 2002).  In 2005, she was a post-doc at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Food and Land Systems, Vancouver (Canada). In 2009, she was a visiting scientist at the Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu (Estonia).  Prof. Anna Iwaniak was also a visiting scientist at University of Porto (Portugal) as well as Agricultural University of Athens in Greece. She is a member of the European Peptide Society (EPS), International Society for Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (ISNFF), and of Polish Society of Food Technologists (in Polish: PTTŻ). Her scientific interests are focused on the analysis of peptides derived from food proteins, mainly searching and co-developing new tools for bioinformatic analysis useful in studies of bioactive and functional peptides. This area is related to developing BIOPEP-UWM database of protein and bioactive peptide sequences.

       
      Toshiro Matsui
    holds a B.A. in Agricultural Chemistry, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan (1986) and Ph.D. (D. Agric.), Agricultural Chemistry, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, (1991). He is Professor at the Department of Bioscience and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Graduate School of Kyushu University, Japan. His research field is to prevent life-style related diseases such as hypertension and diabetes by food compounds and elucidation of their underlying mechanisms. He has published over 321 manuscripts, books and reviews. Some of the most recent are: Ryoko et al (2018) Consumption of the edible sea urchin Mesocentrotus nudus attenuates body weight gain and hepatic lipid accumulation in mice. J. Funct. Foods, 47, 40-47; Baorui et al (2018) Inhibition of glucose transport by tomatoside A, a tomato seed steroidal saponin, through the suppression of GLUT2 expression in Caco-2 cells. J. Agric. Food Chem., 66, 1428–1434; Vu Thi et al (2017) Effect of aging on the absorption of small peptides in spontaneously hypertensive rats. J. Agric. Food Chem., 65, 5935-5943 and Majumder et al (2017) Intervention of isomaltodextrin mitigates intestinal inflammation in a dextran sodium sulfate-induced mouse model of colitis via inhibition of Toll-like receptor-4. J. Agric. Food Chem., 65, 810-817.
       
       
      Chibuike Udenigwe
    is an Associate Professor and Assistant Director, Graduate Programs in the School of Nutrition Sciences, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada. He obtained his Ph.D. in Food and Nutritional Sciences from the University of Manitoba, and was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Guelph. His research group studies the chemistry and nutritional qualities of food proteins/peptides, and their structural dynamics, interaction with food matrix components, bioavailability, and beneficial properties related to metabolic health. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and serves as an Associate Editor of Journal of Functional Foods. Dr. Udenigwe has received many recognitions, including the American Chemical Society – Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Young Scientist Award, American Oil Chemists' Society Young Scientist Research Award, International Union of Food Science and Technology Young Scientist Award, and IFT Tanner Award for the Most Cited Article in the institute’s journals. In 2016, he was invited to the Early Career Scientists Section of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology.
       
       
      Isidra Recio
    PhD in Pharmacy, University Complutense of Madrid. Research Professor of CSIC at the Institute of Food Science Research, CIAL (CSIC-UAM) in Madrid (Spain). Co-author of more than 140 publications in indexed scientific journals in the areas of Food Science and Nutrition, Agriculture, and Analytical Chemistry. These articles have been cited over 5000 times and she has an h-index of 44 (Web of Knowledge). She has participated in more than 40 national and international research projects. Main research interests aim to study health implications of the protein fraction of foods, like bioactive peptides and their physiological effect when they are consumed. Other research activities include: the upgrade proteins by enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation to obtain products with enhanced functional and biological properties; development of cost-effective methods to produce functional ingredients. She has worked at different international Institutes: NIZO food research (The Netherlands) and AgroParisTech (France). Her research has been also oriented to the industry with 9 patent applications; two of them have been licensed to the industry. She was awarded by the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Egg Studies for her developments.
       
       
      Jianping Wu
    is a Professor at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science of University of Alberta. His research aims to understand the structure and activity relationships of food protein derived bioactive peptides. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed papers at international journals, >10 invited book chapters, over 120 scientific presentations and ~80 no-scientific presentations, and 10 patents/applications. He is an editorial advisory member of Food & Function, Journal of Functional Foods, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Food Science and Human Wellness, a Member of Cardiovascular Research Center of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta (since 2010), Chair of Protein and Co-Products Division of American Oil Chemist Society (2016-2018), Chair/co-chair of the Banff Egg Forum (2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), Chair of International Symposium on Bioactive Peptides (2017). 
       
       
      Elvira Gónzalez de Mejía
 

 

is a Professor, Assistant Dean for Research, Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences and University Scholar at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 27 chapters in books in the areas of Food Science and Human Nutrition. The long-range goal of her research program is to enhance the health of individuals by the identification and evaluation of the benefits of bioactive compounds in plant foods. Her research is focused on plant food components with health benefits; analysis, chemical and biological characterization and their mechanism of action. Dr. de Mejia investigates bioactive peptides and proteins in foods that promote health benefits for reducing inflammation, markers of type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease risk. She also identifies and characterizes the functional properties of food components, notably flavonoids in ethnic teas, herbs, berries, cereals and legumes.

       
       
      Anna Laura Capriotti 
    is Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of “La Sapienza” University of Rome. She achieved her Ph.D. in 2012. During the Ph.D., she spent a period of 7 months in Berlin at “Max Delbrück Centrum for Molecular Medicine Berlin Buch member of Helmoltz Association”. She is the author of more than 95 papers, with current research interests in the development of new analytical methods based on liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and tools for protein, peptide and small molecule characterisation. She has been able to apply these tools to issues of biological and biochemical relevance as well as in the fields of nutraceutical and food analysis. Doctor Anna Laura Capriotti has been awarded the EuCheMS Lecture Award 2017. She has also been awarded other prizes, such as “Young Research 2017” in Separation Science and “Young Research 2015” in Analytical Chemistry by the Italian Chemical Society, Ph.D. Thesis Award 2013 granted by Sapienza Università Editrice, SCI Award (2010) for the best Bachelor Thesis in Analytical Chemistry and other awards for best oral presentation and poster presentation at national conferences.
       
       
      Leticia Mora
    was graduated in Food Science and Technology, and obtained her PhD at the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia in 2010. As a posdoctoral researcher, Dr. Mora enjoyed a research fellow at the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia, and later a posdoctoral stay in Teagasc in Dublin (Ireland), and in Royal Holloway University of London (Egham, UK) as a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow.Currently, Dr. Mora is reintegrated in the Group of Prof. Fidel Toldrá at the Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos, CSIC, with a posdoctoral contract. She has been involved in the European projects BACCHUS, related to bioactive peptides on cardiovascular health in humans, and HIGHVALFOOD project, about the application of modern proteomic methodologies in traditional meat products, as well as five national, and two regional projects. Dr. Mora’s main areas of expertise are the isolation, identification, and sequence of naturally generated peptides in meat products, study of their bioactivity, and quantitation by mass spectrometry in tandem.
       
       
      Andrea Liceaga
      has a PhD in food chemistry from The University of British Columbia. In 2009, she became a faculty member in the Food Science Department at Purdue University. Dr. Liceaga’s research program aims to develop approaches for the application of alternative protein sources, in particular insects and fish by-products. Her research includes extraction methods, protein structure-function interactions, bioactive peptides, protein allergenicity, sensory evaluation and consumer attitudes towards alternative proteins, and protein applications through food product
       
       
      Fidel Toldrá
   

 

PhD in Chemistry and Research Professor at the Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (CSIC). He is the European Editor of Trends in Food Science and Technology (Elsevier), Associate Editor of Meat Science (Elsevier) and Editor of the Serial books Advances in Food & Nutrition Research (Academic Press/Elsevier). He is also Editorial Board member of 12 journals including Food Chemistry, Journal of Food Engineering, Current Opinion in Food Science, and International Journal of Molecular Science. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Current Nutrition and Food Science (2005-11, Bentham). He has published over 300 publications in international journals and 130 chapters of books and edited/co-edited >45 books for major publishers. He received the International Prize for Meat Science and Technology (IMS) in 2002 and the Distinguished Research Award in 2010 and the Meat Processing Award in 2014, both from the American Meat Science Association, and the 2015 Dupont Science Award, and is the recipient of the 2019 Award for Advancement of Application of Agricultural and Food Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He was elected a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFOST) in 2008 and Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in 2009. His research interests are food enzymology, bioactive compounds in foods and biochemical changes during food processing affecting safety, sensory and nutritional quality.


 

       
       
      Silvia Montoro-García 
    is a motivated basic researcher with a wide experience in molecular biology at the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM, Spain). She obtained the awards to the most outstanding Graduate in Biology (2005) and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2010). In 2014, she was awarded with a WHRI-ACADEMY fellowship cofounded by the Marie Curie Actions: "Novel properties of Pork Cured Bioactive Peptides to modulate endothelial function, homeostasis and inflammation in pathological conditions". On the other hand, Dr. Montoro acquired experience in conducting clinical trials during her >3 years of postdoctoral activity in Birmingham (UK), where she became involved in the recruitment and analysis of large clinical databases. She currently manages the cell culture lab at the UCAM and investigates on plausible mechanisms of action/beneficial physiological effects of bioactives over the cardiovascular system. Her strong interest is gaining more knowledge in the cardiovascular pathophysiology.
       
       
      Linda Giblin
   

is a Senior Scientist at Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority in Ireland. She obtained her B.Sc. (Hons) in Biotechnology at Dublin City University and her Ph.D. at University College Cork, Ireland. This was followed by a 3 year Wellcome Trust post-doctoral fellowship in the Biochemistry Department at University College Cork. She then completed a further 2 years post-doctoral research at Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Massey University, New Zealand. Prior to her appointment at Teagasc, she held a senior scientist position with responsibility for bioassay development in the start-up biotech company, Xanthon, North Carolina, U.S.A. Since 2003, Linda has led a cellular/molecular biology group at Teagasc with research interests in Food bioactives, Food digestion, Food bioavailability, Satiety, Nutrient sensing in the gut, Adipocyte function, Prenatal programming and Genotype-phenotype interactions. More recently, her lab has developed an active interest in Intestinal Barrier function. In 2012, she took a 4 months industrial sabbatical at Nestle Research Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a co-leader on EU COST Action CA16112-NutRedOx. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Functional Foods. She is a Principal Investigator/ Coordinator on numerous national and EU funded projects.

       
       
      Keizo Arihara
   

is a professor of the Food Science Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, Kitasato University, Japan.  He earned a Ph.D. in Animal Science in 1988 from Tohoku University, Japan.  He joined as a visiting scientist in the Meat Science Laboratory and the Food Research Institute at University of Wisconsin-Madison (2001-2003).  Also, he has been a visiting professor at the National University of Malaysia and Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia).  He has authored and coauthored many book chapters, research articles, and patents.  He is a member of the editorial boards of Meat Science, Animal Science Journal, and Trends in Food Science and Technology.  His research interests are based on food biochemistry and microbiology, with a special focus on functional animal products.

       
      Hitomi Kumagai
   

is a full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Life Science, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University, Japan. She earned her Master's Degree in Food and Nutrition at Ochanomizu University and her Doctor's Degree in Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Tokyo. She joined the faculty at Nihon University after finishing the doctor’s course. She spent a year from March of 2000 at Nottingham University, UK as an Overseas Researcher. She received “The Award of Japanese Society for Food Science and Technology” in 2016 as the fourth female recipient out of 60.  She is a Member of Science Council of Japan and the Chair of Committee of Agricultural and Biological Chemistry as well as a member of an Executive Board of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry. She wrote 19 book chapters and published 93 papers in the peer-reviewed journals. Her current research interests are functions of food proteins and flavor-related compounds.

 

       
       
      Jun Lu
     PhD, Professor. Vice President of China National Research Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries; Vice director of Beijing Engineering Research Center of Protein and Functional Peptides; Guest Researcher of The University of Tokyo. Dr. Lu has researched in the field of food nutrition and functional foods especially bioactive peptides for decades, chairing and undertaking more than twenty national- and ministerial- level scientific research projects such as National High Technology R&D (863) Program (Research on key technology of preparation of hypoallergenic protein; Structure characterization and in vitro/vivo function evaluation of industrial-scale food-derived oligopeptides), National Key Technology R&D Program (Key technology of preparation and application of immuno-enhancement functional factor), National Natural Science Foundation (Inhibition mechanism of thermodynamic interaction with IgE and structure change of Crag 1 through thermal damage), and Scientific Research Foundation for Selected Returned Overseas Scholars (Key technology and cell absorption mechanism of food-origin oligopeptide chelated minerals). As a member of the authoring group of Annual Report of Chinese Food Industry Development, he has published more than 70 papers and applied 81 patents including 52 licensed Chinese patents and 6 licensed international ones. 
       
       

 

 

Organizers and collaborators