Contributors

Jo Monks

Lecturer in Ecology, University of Otago

Lecturer in Ecology, University of Otago I was a science advisor working on terrestrial threatened species and ecosystems at the Department of Conservation for 14 years before taking up a lecturing position in ecology and wildlife management at the University of Otago in 2021.

James M. Clay

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, University of Victoria I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in a position shared between Dalhousie University and the University of Victoria. My expertise lies in analysing the societal and individual factors driving alcohol consumption, and assessing the impact of various alcohol policies to guide effective public health interventions.

Jessica Jones-Smith

Associate Professor of Health Systems and Population Health, Epidemiology, University of Washington

Associate Professor of Health Systems and Population Health, Epidemiology, University of Washington Dr. Jessica Jones-Smith investigates socioeconomic causes and correlates of obesity risk in both high- and low/middle-income countries. Past and current research pertains to income- and ethnicity-based health disparities in obesity; early life risk factors for obesity; and the nutrition transition and increasing obesity prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

Julián Fernández

Researcher at Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Universidad de Costa Rica

Researcher at Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Universidad de Costa Rica Julián obtained a Lic. in microbiology and clinical chemistry from Universidad de Costa Rica (2007), followed by an MSc in the Graduate Program in Microbiology, Parasitology, and Clinical Chemistry at UCR (2010), and a PhD from the Graduate Program in Biosciences and Biotechnology at Università di Padova (UNIPD), in Italy (2014). Currently, he is a researcher at Instituto Clodomiro Picado at UCR, where he studies the proteomic composition of snake venoms and mechanisms of action of snake toxins. Julián has participated in studies involving the proteomic composition of the venoms from multiple species of snakes, as well as in the isolation, sequencing and characterization of novel proteins from various Costa Rican snake venoms.

John Worthington

Senior Lecturer in Infection Biology, Lancaster University

Senior Lecturer in Infection Biology, Lancaster University The intestinal epithelium offers the first interaction between commensal bacteria, pathogens and our bodies’ largest immune system. Inappropriate immune responses drive inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or excessive inflammation during infection. My research focuses on the epithelial enteroendocrine cells (EECs), which release peptide hormones in response to nutrients allowing their efficient digestion. EEC alterations are strongly associated with inflammation, yet the possibility of interactions between our gut’s endocrine and immune systems remains overlooked. Understanding the mechanistic cross-talk between enteroendocrine and immune cells will identify the immunoendocrine axis as a key feature of intestinal health which could be therapeutically targeted during disease.

John Harvey

Associate professor, University of Nottingham

Associate professor, University of Nottingham I'm an Associate Professor based in N/LAB. My recent work focuses on the use of aggregated consumer behavioural data to address social issues, such as: food and nutritional security, food waste, loneliness, deprivation, and vulnerable migration.