![Dr Sylvia Duncan Dr Sylvia Duncan](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/rwt096/S_Duncan_photo.jpg)
BSc PhD
Senior Research Fellow
- About
-
- Email Address
- sylvia.duncan@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 438680
- Office Address
Rowett Institute
Forresterhill Campus
Aberdeen
AB25 2ZD
- School/Department
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
- Research
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Research Overview
The Microbiology group have isolated and characterised many of the most abundant bacterial species that inhabit the human large intestine. A panel of the most interesting strains have also been genome sequenced. Mining these genomes has led to a good understanding of the roles of these mostly anaerobic bacteria in the human colon including their primary metabolic function, such as the formation of short chain fatty acids.
Research team:
Amanda Morris – Research Assistant
Galiana Lo - PhD student
Dr Indrani Mukhopadhya – Research Fellow
Research Areas
Nutrition and Health
Research Specialisms
- Microbiology
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
My current research is focussed on the impact of dietary macronutrients, including protein and carbohydrate content, on modulating the composition of the gut microbiota and metabolic outputs to improve health and prevent disease. The impact of gut environmental factors, including pH and bile salt levels, on modulating the gut microbiota and metabolism are also being studied using in vitro model colonic fermentor systems. We are also interested in bacterial cross feeding of dietary macronutrients by specialist bacterial species. We are also interested lactic acid utilising bacterial species as this is a product that is usually low in healthy colons but can accumulate to high levels in disease states such as inflammatory bowel disease. Further studies are also underway on host-microbe interactions.
More recently, the formation of secondary metabolites, such as polyketides and non-ribosomally synthesised peptides, by gut anaerobes are being studied through genome mining strains, testing their ability to inhibit pathogens and identifying the structure of these peptides as these are potentially pharmaceutically important compounds that may possess anti-microbial and anti-cancer properties.
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
Course Coordinator MC4014
Contribute lectures and tutorials to Nutrition courses
- Publications
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Formate cross-feeding and cooperative metabolic interactions revealed by transcriptomics in co-cultures of acetogenic and amylolytic human colonic bacteria
Environmental Microbiology, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 259-271Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAlterations in the abundance and co-occurrence of Akkermansia muciniphila and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the colonic mucosa of inflammatory bowel disease subjects
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, vol. 8, 281Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00281
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11057/1/fcimb_08_00281.pdf
Mutual Interaction of Phenolic Compounds and Microbiota: Metabolism of Complex Phenolic Apigenin-C- and Kaempferol-O-Derivatives by Human Fecal Samples
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, vol. 66, no. 2, pp. 485–497Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.7b04842
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11639/1/jf_2017_04842u.R1.pdf
Sporulation capability and amylosome conservation among diverse human colonic and rumen isolates of the keystone starch-degrader Ruminococcus bromii
Environmental Microbiology, vol. 20, pp. 324-336Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSpecific substrate-driven changes in human faecal microbiota composition contrast with functional redundancy in short-chain fatty acid production
The ISME Journal, vol. 12, pp. 610-622Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] http://rdcu.be/z7fV
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2017.196
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/10532/1/Reichardt_et_al_ISME_J_2017.pdf
Prebiotic potential of pectin and pectic oligosaccharides to promote anti-inflammatory commensal bacteria in the human colon
FEMS Microbiology Ecology, vol. 93, no. 11, pp. 1-9Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCirculating and Tissue-resident CD4+ T Cells With Reactivity to Intestinal Microbiota Are Abundant in Healthy Individuals and Function is Altered During Inflammation
Gastroenterology, vol. 153, no. 5, pp. 1320-1337Contributions to Journals: ArticlesChlorogenic acid versus amaranth's caffeoylisocitric acid – Gut microbial degradation of caffeic acid derivatives
Food Research International, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 375-384Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDiscovery of a novel lantibiotic nisin O from Blautia obeum A2-162, isolated from the human 2 gastrointestinal tract
Microbiology , vol. 163, no. 9, pp. 1292-1305Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe impact of nutrition on intestinal bacterial communities
Current Opinion in Microbiology, vol. 38, pp. 59-65Contributions to Journals: Literature Reviews- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2017.04.005