Principal Investigator

Ciarán Forde is Principal Investigator at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (A*STAR), and leads research on sensory and ingestive behaviour at the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre. Ciarán received his PhD in Sensory Science from the Department of Nutrition at University College Cork in Ireland before working in the food industry for over ten years at GSK (UK), CSIRO (Australia) and the Nestlé Research Centre (Switzerland). At SICS, Ciarán holds a joint appointment with the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre and is an Associate Professor (Research) in the Dept. Physiology in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. Ciarán’s group focuses on the sensory and cognitive influences on energy intake and the subsequent dietary patterns that inform health. The group aims to understand the factors that influence food choice, eating behaviours and sensory factors that influence energy intake within and across meals and the development of food preferences and dietary behaviour in children, adults and elderly. Research Overview The goal of our studies is to better understand how humans learn to select and consume the foods that lead to healthy or unhealthy diets. Our research aims to understand the factors that influence food choice and energy intake in children, adults and elderly. We aim to establish meaningful links between food perception, preference, and intake behaviour and through this understand the regulation of energy intake within and across cultures and at key stages in the life-course. Our aim is to use this knowledge of food choice & intake behaviour to design interventions aimed at improving energy intake regulation and overall health and well-being.

1. Forde, C.G., Almiron-Roig, E. and Brunstrom, J.M. (2015). Expected Satiety: Application to Weight Management and Understanding Energy Selection in Humans. Current Obesity Reports (Accepted for publication, March 2015).
   
   
2. Toepel, U., Bielser; M.F., Forde, C. G., Martin, M., Voirin, A., le Coutre, J., Murray, M., Hudry, J. (2015). Meal size selection for prospective satiety is mediated by brain regions involved in attentional and self-regulation processes. Accepted by NeuroImage for publication.
   
   
3. Robinson, E., Almorin-Roig, E., Rutter, F., Forde, C.G., de Graaf, C. and Jebb, S. (2014). A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of eating rate on energy consumption and hunger. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 100 (1), pp. 123-151.
   
   
4. Bolhuis, D. Forde, C.G., Martin, N. and De Graaf. C. (2014). “Slow Food”; Sustained Impact of Harder Foods on the Reduction of Energy Intake over the Course of the Day. PLoS One, 9(4) e93370.
   
   
5. Forde C. G., van Kuijk, N., Thaler, T., de Graaf, C., Martin, N. (2013a). Oral processing characteristics of solid meal components and relations with food composition, sensory attributes and expected satiation. Appetite, 60, 208-219.

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.