Profile
Amy Lin is Principal Investigator at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS, A*STAR), and leads the Food Structure Engineering for Nutrition and Health (FSENH) programme at the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC). Amy has a diverse education in horticulture and food science, and she received her Ph.D. in starch chemistry from the Department of Horticulture at National Taiwan University (Taiwan, R.O.C.) followed by postdoc fellowships at Iowa State University (U.S.A.) and Purdue University (U.S.A.). Amy worked in the food industry in Taiwan for over eight years and was involved in managing the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research at Purdue University for three years as the Managing Director for Strategic Planning and Research Communication. In addition to the strong relationships with the food industry, Amy held professorships in starch chemistry and human health at Purdue University, the University of Idaho (U.S.A.), Washington State University (U.S.A.), and National Taiwan University. Amy's research expertise, starch chemistry, involves both fundamental discovery and applied solutions. She is known in the area of starch digestibility, particularly the relationship between starch molecular structure and human digestive enzymes. Amy is fascinated by the complexity of food structure and is passionate about the digestion-related physiologic responses and diseases which has led her to research starch digestion related malnutrition in children. During her time in the Northwest region of the United States, she also extended her research in basic starch chemistry to supporting the agricultural industry, primarily in weather-related wheat quality issues, potato variety development, and French fry quality.
Research Overview
The mission of the FSENH program is to advance the science of food structure through an increased understanding of the relationships between food structure and human physiology and nutrition and facilitate the translation of the fundamental findings into food applications to further enhance economic growth in the region and promote human wellness.
The FSENH program develops foods with desired food structure to advance human nutrition and health through:
- advancing fundamental science through the study of the relationship between food structure and human physiology and through the validation of our research findings in clinical trials,
- understanding of food structure-functionality of food polymers and micronutrients via creative and advanced technologies,
- discovering new or alternative sources of food components, and
- collaborating and partnering with the food industry.