Harriët Schellekens
Lecturer
University College Cork
Dr Harriët Schellekens (BSc, MSc, PhD) is a principal investigator with Food for Health Ireland focusing on appetite modulation. She is a lecturer in UCC’s Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience and is also part of the APC Microbiome Institute. She has a PhD in Pharmacy, an MSc in Biology and Medical Biology, and was awarded a Marie Curie Host Fellowship for Transfer of Knowledge in 2006. She led development and optimisation at Organon NV (Akzo Nobel) for five years and has worked at Eirx therapeutics, contributing towards building a focused drug discovery capability. She returned to academia in 2010 and has published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Her research interests have been focused on the neuronal circuitry underlying the complex relationship between stress, mood and food intake.
Abstract
Mining the Microbiota: Novel Insights from Microbiota-targeting Strategies for Metabolic Health and Mood
The gut harbours an enormous diversity of microbes essential for the maintenance of homeostasis in health and disease. The importance of the microbiota has been shown in metabolic disorders, including obesity, as well as in affective disorders, such as anxiety and depression, which are often associated with changes in food preference and intake. Understanding the mechanisms by which the gut microbiota influences host appetite, metabolism and mood, will provide a better understanding of conditions wherein appetite is dysregulated, leading to novel microbiota-targeting strategies. Moreover, the microbiota is emerging as a unique source of metabolites with potential to modulate targets across the gut-brain axis, which provides a promising opportunity to mine the gut microbiota for novel effective biotherapeutics against obesity and stress-related disorders.