Dr. Yves Desjardins
2019 Presentation Title – The Tannin Fractions of Polyphenol Berry Extracts Regulate Glycemia through a Modulation of the Gut Microbiota and an Improvement of Gut Barriers Function
Yves Desjardins is full professor at the Plant Science department and he is affiliated with the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods at Laval University, Québec Canada. He was recently appointed Dianafood-NSERC Industrial Chair on prebiotic effects of fruits and vegetables (PhenoBio). Trained in plant physiology, he is conducting research on phytochemistry and functionality of bioactive compounds from plants. He is PI or collaborator on many major preclinical and clinical studies on type-2 diabetes, cognitive decline, low-grade inflammation, urinary tract infection, skin diseases, and oral infections. Over the years, he has accompanied many horticultural and food processing companies in the development and the validation of the health benefits of horticultural commodities (e.g. Glucophenol, Neurophenol).
At the international scene, he is recognized for his innovative research program on health effects of fruits and vegetables. He was the Chair first International Symposium on Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables in Québec City (FAVHEALTH 2005) and the OECD Symposium – “Emerging Topics in Health Effects Fruit and Vegetables” in Lisbon, Portugal (2010). He was nominated in 2005 as Chair of the ISHS Commission Fruit and Vegetable and Health a position he occupied until 2010 after being elected on the Board of ISHS. He organized in 2016 the International Strawberry Symposium (750 participants), which made a large place to health effects of this fruit. Recently (October 2017), he also organized the leading International Congress on Polyphenols and Health (www.ICPH2017-Québec.org) (>350 world renowned participants). His leadership in the field is recognized worldwide; he has been invited on numerous occasions to give keynote lectures at international meetings over the last few years (>20). He is involved in many international research projects in France, Mexico, Italy, and Belgium. Dr. Desjardins has written more than 120 publications (Normalized H-index of 23.5) and has trained many graduate students at the Master (29), at the Ph. D. (10) and the Postdoctoral level (12) since the beginning of his career. He sat on numerous master and Ph.D. thesis review (more than 67) and has participated as an examiner on more than 21 Ph.D. thesis evaluation committee in Canada and internationally. Since 2013, he filed 3 patents.