Nutrition physiology and human nutrition – Institute of Food Science and Human Nutrition

We have more than 25 years of experience in conducting human studies with an extensive methodological repertoire. Besides human nutrition physiological studies, we have well-documented food law expertise, especially at the interface between scientific and legal issues.

Since 1993, our experience has been applied and deepened in numerous research projects as well as in various interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research associations with partners from universities and the industry. There is close cooperation with the fields of medicine, sports science, epidemiology and prevention research, pharmacology and toxicology, but also with social science subjects such as marketing and empirical social research. Out research results are published in more than 400 publications, including several specialist books and book chapters.

With the integration of scientific, food law and marketing-relevant aspects, the department also supports a wide range of companies in the development and positioning of new foods, including nutritional supplements, with a special focus on nutrition and health-related information.

Research facility at the Institute of Food Science and Human Nutrition, under the scientific direction of Prof. Dr. Hahn

Competence Centre for Mineral and Medicinal Water (KMH)

Methods

The methodological focus of the Nutrition Physiology and Human Nutrition section is the planning, implementation and evaluation of human studies, with three main approaches:

Nutritional studies to investigate the bioavailability and metabolism of nutrients and other food components
Randomized and placebo-controlled intervention studies with food and food ingredients in accordance with the requirements of Good Clinical Practice (GCP)
Epidemiological cross-sectional studies to investigate the relationship between nutrition-dependent factors and health and performance.

Depending on the question, various biochemical, physiological, genetic and functional markers are recorded, such as:

Anthropometric markers (height, weight, BMI, bioelectrical impedance analyses)
Micronutrient status in the blood (25-OH vitamin D, folic acid, vitamins B1, B2, B12, holo-trans-cobalamin, iron, transferrin, ferritin, zinc)
Markers of the glucose metabolism (glucose, oGTT, insulin, HbA1c, HOMA index)
Blood lipids (triglycerides, LDL-, HDL-cholesterol, sdLDL, oxLDL)
Immune risk profile (naive T cells, senescent T cells, CD4 / CD8 T cell ratio, number of regulatory T cells, CD28 T cells, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, systemic immune Inflammation index)
Inflammation markers (hsCRP, TNFα, TGF-β, MCP-1, IL-1-β, IL-2, IL-6 and IL-10) in plasma and cell supernatant after ex vivo immune cell stimulation)
Fatty acid profiles in plasma and erythrocyte membranes
Arterial stiffness using Carotid-Femoral Pulse Wave Velocity
Oxidative stress marker (MDA, ADMA)
Composition of the gut microbiota in stool samples using 16S rRNA sequencing