Louise Dye, PhD
2019 Presentation Title – The Effects of Berry Polyphenols on Cognitive Function in Adults in the Context of Other Plant Based Ingredients: An ILSI Europe Systematic Review
Louise Dye is Professor of Nutrition and Behaviour and leads the Nutrition and Behaviour Group, in the Human Appetite Research Unit in the School of Psychology, University of Leeds. Louise is Academic Lead for the University of Leeds of the HEFCE catalyst funded N8 Agrifood Programme. The N8 Agrifood Programme brings together expertise across the 8 research intensive universities in the North of England in agriculture, food production and supply in a changing environment with a global reach. In her N8 role, Louise is interested in how to encourage and sustain dietary behaviour change at individual, organisational and societal levels, linking to global issues of food production/supply, inequality and health.
Professor Dye is a member of the BBSRC Strategy Board for Biosciences for Health and of BBSRC’s Diet and Health Research Industry club (DRINC) Steering Group. She has held MRC and Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellowships in the UK and Europe and an EU funded Marie Curie Professorial Fellowship in Jena, Germany. Professor Dye is a Chartered Health Psychologist and British Psychological Society member. She began her career in Human Psychopharmacology and has over 30 years’ experience in the assessment of nutritional and pharmacological intervention on cognitive function and wellbeing. She is Associate Editor of Nutritional Neuroscience and the European Journal of Nutrition and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the FP7 project “PREVIEW” which is aimed at the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Her research interests include functional foods for wellbeing, stress management, mental health and cognitive performance/decline and in altered metabolic states such as obesity and type 2 diabetes as well as genetic disorders such as PKU and Cystic Fibrosis. She is interested in the modification of glycaemic response by diet and the impact of food on stress and wellbeing, and has developed an experimental technique to permit repeated stress induction.
Louise has published influential systematic reviews of the effects of breakfast on cognitive and academic performance and the effects of polyphenols on cognition. Her work on polyphenols includes a recent study of Concord grape juice which demonstrated enduring effects of Concord grape on cognitive and driving performance. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ILSI Europe and has served on 5 of their expert groups including Natural (plant based) Ingredients and Cognitive Function.