Harriët Schellekens
Biography
Dr. Harriët Schellekens investigates the impact of diet & nutrition and the gut microbiome on human health and physiology, in particular metabolic health, host eating behavior and stress-related disorders throughout life. She has a specific interest in the exploration of the gut microbiota as a mediator of gut-brain signaling underlying the complex relationship between food, mood and stress. She uses mechanistic and translational studies bridging basic and clinical aspects of neuroscience and nutrition to investigate the concept of the link between metabolic disease and mental health, and the potential amelioration of both via microbiome targeted approaches.
Her laboratory uses in vitro, and ex vivo approaches to elucidate the mechanism of the bi-directional communication between brain and gut microbiota, including immune-neuroendocrine pathways, gut-brain axis receptors, and signaling via microbiota-derived metabolites. She has a specific interest in the interaction of the gut microbiota with G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), neuropeptides and gut hormones across the gut-brain axis regulating eating behavior, food reward-motivated behaviour, anxiety and depression.
UCC: UCC Research Profiles: Harriet Schellekens, BioSciences Institute
Twitter: @harschellekens
Research Interests
Theme:Brain-Gut-Microbiota Axis Theme
SDGs: 2. Zero Hunger; 3. Good Health & Wellbeing; 4. Quality education; 10. Reduced inequalities
Key words: Reward, Food intake behavior, GPCR, ghrelin, LEAP2, Microbiota
Publications
Google Scholar: harriet schellekens - Google Scholar
ORCID: Harriet Schellekens (0000-0002-6065-3797) (orcid.org)
Pubmed: harriet schellekens - Search Results - PubMed (nih.gov)