Lister Science Chats: Nutrition & Human Health

Held in partnership with Let’s Talk Science at McGill University and the Lister Family Engaged Science Initiative, the Lister Science Chats connect members of the community through live science talks with researchers from the McGill Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. This event features three Macdonald Campus graduate students giving an engaging 10-minute talk on their research and concludes with a Q&A period.

Join us live at: https://letstalkscience-parlonssciences-ca.zoom.us/j/91709449259

• Developing an online education platform to promote self-management in youth living with type 1 diabetes 

Asmaa Housni, MSc student, School of Human Nutrition

Tight control of blood glucose levels is critical when managing type 1 diabetes. Acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills is imperative to gain the self-confidence and self-management capacities to adequately manage such a demanding condition. There is a lack of tailored education and long-term support for youth living with this condition. My research aims to develop an online education platform, using youth’s input, that will target their need for management. After its development, we want to evaluate if its use significantly improved blood glucose control and self-management behaviours.

• Prospecting the chicken microbiome for anti-infective probiotics 

Zhixuan Feng, PhD candidate, Animal Science

Because of the risk of Antibiotic Resistance (ABR), the Canadian poultry industry decided to decrease the use of antibiotics step by step. However, without antibiotic treatment, the colonization of some zoonotic pathogens will likely increase in the chicken intestine and higher the chances of chicken bacterial infections, which require effective antibiotic alternatives to maintain bird health and production. In this project, we search the bacteria with a special “weapon” called Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) from chicken feces as potential probiotic candidates and test their antagonistic ability with the pathogen. We totally isolated over 3,000 bacteria strains from 6 chicken samples and found some bacteria with anti-infective potential.

• The implication of silica and titania particles in food and their effect on human nutrition and health

Wut Hmone Phue, PhD candidate, Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry

When the inorganic materials are used as food additives, nano-size fragment particles are also included. That nano-size particles interacted with food matrices and changed the particles' biological identity and their effect on human nutrition and health, including the allergenicity of food proteins.

Let's Talk Science is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing "hands-on, minds-on" opportunities to engage youth in STEM. The McGill Chapter of Let's Talk Science is a volunteer-based group of graduate and undergraduate students from a wide range of faculties at McGill University. 

The Lister Family Engaged Science Initiative provides science communication training to Macdonald Campus researchers to help them make their science accessible by teaching them to further hone their content, physical presence and voice to effectively engage a variety of audiences.