We are very proud to announce that Metabolomics has featured our novel work in Thanatometabolomics on the front cover of the July issue. The title of the art work is: <<Metabolomics goes beyond the last frontier: Thanatometabolomics after “The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory” from Salvatore Dali.>> This cover is also a tribute to […]

Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is the most common type of diabetes, currently affecting 90% of people with this systematic metabolic disease. In diabetic individuals, glucose is released in the stomach and absorbed into the bloodstream. There are sufficient levels of insulin produced, but cells fail to intake glucose, therefore, high levels of glucose circulate in […]

  If you are a fan of CSI, or an eager reader of Agatha Christie, you will be very aware by now of the different methods used during a forensic investigation to determine the time of death of a cadaver. This has to be done based on factors such as rigor mortis, body core temperature, […]

That poo is surrounded by taboo, is something the majority of us will agree on. This social stigma is an underpinning problem for scientific research focussed on the development of new therapies related to our gut. “Poo provokes strong reactions. Small children naturally delight in it, but later we learn to avoid this yucky, disease-carrying […]

Choline Theft- An Inside Job, is the new article published by Dr Marina Mora-Ortiz and Dr Sandrine Claus in Cell Host & Microbe. This work reviews the role of choline, an important methyl donor essential for epigenetic regulation (the study of changes in your genes that are not the consequence of a DNA sequence modification). In […]

A warm welcome to Ishawu Iddrisu, new PhD student in ClausLab. Ishawu has been granted a Commonwealth Scholarship to develop a PhD Thesis in the understanding of host-gut microbial metabolic interaction in malnourished children. Gut microbiota (the group of microbes living in the intestines) plays an important role in health and disease, interacting with the host […]

Is a white glass of milk as innocent as it looks like? Are we drinking what we actually thought we bought? The food industry has been recently splashed by fraud scandals occuring at different stages of the chain production. It is not uncommon for example to find cheaper cow milk added to goat milk in […]

The ClausLab has the pleasure to announce that three new members are joining our team. Marianne Trichard and Ianis Charrouf, from the department of Food Bioscience from l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie, Biologie et Physique, Bordeaux, France and Salim Makni from University Paul Sabatier Toulouse 3, where he just finished a Master in Structural and Functional Biochemistry. Marianne […]

The University of Reading is funding a novel project to travel back to the Middle Age of our oral microbiome. The research group from Dr Mary Lewis, from the department of Archaeology, and the ClausLab are joining strengths to investigate the fragments of microbial DNA found in the dental plaques of individuals who lived during early, late and post medieval times. […]

Professor Kristian Vlahovicek, based in the University of Zagreb, is regarded as an international expert in bioinformatics specialised in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data analysis. His findings over the past 20 years have contributed to boost knowledge around genomics by improving data analysis. Prof Vlahovicek, along with his team, has developed several softwares for analysis, visualisation […]

Although totally unexpected, we are proud that our ‘chiken metabolome atlas‘ paper won the Research Output Prize for Early Career Researchers, an annual competition ran by the University of Reading. It was a great honour to celebrate this achievement with other prize winners on the University Court event where we received the prize from our […]

            EUFIC works with MyNewGut to disseminate the outcomes of the project and translate the science in an engaging way. Watch here their latest video.  

We were delighted to receive the visit of Lisa, Alana and their filming crew in February. The so-called MacTwins have developed a strong interest in the world of nutrition and gut bacteria to the point that they are building a website and YouTube channel dedicated to the subject: The Gut Stuff.  They were curious to […]

Following the publication in Metabolomics of the first chicken metabolome atlas in October, we are proud that our work was selected to be on the front cover of the December issue. The picture was constructed to show the 12 biological matrices investigated (liver, kidney, brain, muscle, spleen, plasma, ileum, colon, caecum, faecal water, egg yolk […]

One of the things I love about the University of Reading is the numerous lunch-time seminars you can feed your mind with on a weekly basis. About a year ago the Center for Food Security (CFS) at the University of Reading invited Professor La Ragione from University of Surrey to give a seminar. His talk […]

The Francis Crick Institute reopens its doors inaugurating the new building based in Midland Road. The new Crick Lab has moved over 1,300 researchers and lab equipment, including heavy NMR machines! over the summer. During this period, the collaborations established with Claus Lab in January 2016 to study gut microbial influence on energy metabolism was temporarily suspended. […]

The latest AVANCE/TOPSPIN ‘Operators’ Training Course took place in Bruker, Coventry, from 10th to 14th October 2016. Lectures provided by Dr Pete Gierth, Dr Matteo Pennestri and Dr Andrew Gibbs covered different topics from basic NMR concepts to advanced AU programming practical sessions. Sixteen NMR researchers, including Dr Marina Mora-Ortiz and the Phd candidate Joanna […]

It is a pleasure to participate in the MiCRObiota Incognita 2016 young researcher’s conference in Krk, Croatia. Here, thanks to the support of the European Commission, I was able to meet a vibrant community of young scientists who are passionate about science.  Discussions ranged from potential mechanisms of action of butyrate producing bacteria to the role […]

The ‘5th Exploring Human Host-Microbiome Interactions in Health and Disease‘ took place at Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridge, between the 7th and 9th of September. The outcomes of extensive investigations into the benefits and risks of the interactions between microbiome and host were unveiled in a series of talks by the scientists participating at this […]

The Microbiology Research Day dissemination event at the School of Chemistry, Food Biosciences and Pharmacy at University of Reading that took place on Thursday 18th of August was a great success. The outcomes of extensive studies into the area of prebiotic and diabetic research were presented in a series of talks and posters. The PhD […]