Laura Turner
Project Title: VIP-Ingredients: In vitro food digestion and absorption
Biography: Laura is a PhD student at Teagasc Moorepark and University College Cork.
Her project investigates ingredients and foods developed from selected varieties of fava bean, pea, lupin and oats. She is examining how these novel ingredients behave during digestion using the INFOGEST in vitro gastrointestinal digestion method. She will also investigate how nutrients are absorbed by the intestine and measure gut response using the Caco-2/HT29-MTX model of the gut barrier.
This interdisciplinary PhD combines food science, protein chemistry and cell biology while contributing to the development of scientifically validated, nutritious plant-based ingredients and foods with the potential to support healthier and more sustainable diets.
Laura’s PhD project forms part of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine-funded VIP Ingredients programme, bringing together researchers from Teagasc, UCC, SETU and UCD to develop the next generation of plant-based food ingredients.
Laura holds a First-Class Honours BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Galway, where she worked on cancer-associated fibroblasts in the tumour microenvironment of human breast tissue. She is now applying the research and lab techniques developed from her oncology research to a new area of food bioscience.