Research Groups
Meet our Research Teams
AMBROSIAC is a multidisciplinary Europe wide project comprising of groups of researchers in University College Cork, Ireland, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and translational Research in Metabolism, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, University Bordeaux, France, Department of Neuroscience, University of Florence, Italy and Kings College London, University of Cambridge, UK.
Academic Lead
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Professor Monique Breteler
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Professor John Cryan
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Dr. Lucile Capuron
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Prof Annemie Schols
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Professor Carmine Pariante
Cork, Ireland
Partner 1 – Cork/UCC, Ireland
Principal Investigators:
Prof. John F. Cryan
Prof Ted G. Dinan
Dr Harriet Schellekens
Prof Catherine Stanton
Dr Gerard Clarke
Postdoc:
Dr. Marcus Boehme
The AMBROSIAC team in Ireland, Professor John Cryan, Professor Timothy Dinan, Professor Catherine Stanton, Dr. Gerard Clarke and Dr. Harriet Schellekens have recently been awarded key research funding under the umbrella of the JPI HDHL Joint Call "Nutrition and Cognitive Function" investigating how diet through stress-related mechanisms affects cognition across the lifespan using clinical and preclinical approaches.
Diet and nutritional habits significantly impact on brain fitness, mental and cognitive health throughout the lifespan. Chronic stress has been shown to negatively impact brain plasticity and cognitive performance, in particular in the ageing brain. Interestingly, the aged brain resembles the stressed brain on both behavioural and cellular levels and stress-induced cognitive alterations are likely to be more marked in the elderly.
The aged brain is particularly vulnerable to stress-induced cognitive decline and will benefit tremendously from mechanistically-oriented dietary interventions to attenuate such cognitive impairment and to provide a general boost on brain health. Moreover, cognitive decline is increasingly present in the ageing population, who are living with chronic diseases and subject to elevated levels of psychological stress, which are both huge challenges for the EU economy and society.
AMBROSIAC will unravel the direct effects of dietary components, nutritional status, metabolism and the impact of the gut microbiome on cognitive function (i.e., memory and executive function) and how this interaction is modified through stress and ageing
Bordeaux, France
Partner 2 – Bordeaux/INRA, France
Principal Investigators:
Dr. Lucile Capuron
Dr. Sophie Layé
Dr. Guillaume Ferreira
Dr. Veronique Pallet
PhD student:
Essi Biyong
Bonn, Germany
Partner 3 – Bonn/DZNE, Germany
Principal Investigator:
Prof. Monique Breteler
Research manager:
Dr. Antonio Schmandke
Postdoc:
Dr. Aparna Schweitzer
PhD student:
Sadia Oumohand
Florence, Italy
Partner 4 – Florence/NEUROFARBA, Italy
Principal Investigators:
Prof. Beatrice Passani
Prof Patrizio Blandina
Postdoc:
Dr. Gustavo Provensi
PhD student:
Alessia Costa
Maastricht, The Netherlands
Partner 5 – Maastricht/NUTRIM, The Netherlands
Principal Investigators:
Prof. Annemie Schols
Dr. Harry Gosker
PhD students:
Sarah Mount
Martijn van Beers
London, UK
Partner 6 – London/KCL, UK
Principal Investigators:
Prof. Carmine Pariante
Dr. Patricia Zunszain
Postdoc:
Dr. Alessandra Borsini
PhD student:
Shashi Dissanayake