Research Scientist

Applications are invited for a Research Scientist to join the Laboratory of Dr Paul Kroon in the Quadram Institute, Norwich, UK. The successful candidate will join the Kroon group at Quadram Institute Bioscience and work within the Food, Microbiome and Health Institute Strategic Programme. The Kroon group have been undertaking research to understand how polyphenols in plant foods interact with the human body with a view to understanding their contributions to the health benefits of plant food and fruit and vegetable-rich diets for over 25 years. The current focus is on understanding how interaction of polyphenols with the gut microbiome has beneficial effects on the human host. This research includes work to determine the production of beneficial phenolic metabolites and also their role in increasing the production of beneficial microbial metabolites (e.g., short chain fatty acids) and reducing the production of harmful microbial metabolites (e.g., trimethylamine). The successful candidate will build on recently completed research showing that specific dietary polyphenols inhibit the microbial production of trimethylamine from L-carnitine. They will investigate the underlying mechanisms and in particular explore whether the effects are on gene abundance and/or gene expression and/or protein functions. The Kroon Group currently comprises three postdocs, a PhD student and visiting scientists and is supported by scientific support staff with expertise in human colon models, metabolomics, quantitative analytical chemistry, sequencing, bioinformatics and human studies.