![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
-
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
-
Teaching Responsibilities
Course Coordinator MC4014
Contribute lectures and tutorials to Nutrition courses
- Publications
-
Page 3 of 14 Results 21 to 30 of 134
Microbiota-directed food formulation
Food Science & Technology, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 26-27Contributions to Journals: ArticlesRelative abundance of the Prevotella genus within the human gut microbiota of elderly volunteers determines the inter-individual responses to dietary supplementation with wheat bran arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides
BioMed Central Microbiology, vol. 20, 283Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPivotal roles for pH, lactate and lactate-utilizing bacteria in the stability of a human colonic microbial ecosystem
mSystems, vol. 5, no. 5, e00645-20Contributions to Journals: ArticlesComparative genetic and physiological characterisation of Pectinatus species reveals shared tolerance to beer-associated stressors but halotolerance specific to pickle-associated strains
Food Microbiology, vol. 90, 103462Contributions to Journals: ArticlesVitamin biosynthesis by human gut butyrate-producing bacteria and cross-feeding in synthetic microbial communities
mBio, vol. 11, no. 4, e00886-20Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAnalysis of 1321 Eubacterium rectale genomes from metagenomes uncovers complex phylogeographic population structure and subspecies functional adaptations
Genome Biology, vol. 21, 138Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEvaluation of bacterial biomarkers to aid in challenging inflammatory bowel diseases diagnostics and subtype classification
World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 64-77Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSapogenol is a major microbial metabolite in human plasma associated with high protein soy-based diets: the relevance for functional food formulations
Foods, vol. 9, no. 4, 422Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9040422
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/13964/1/Neascu_etal_foods_Sapagenol_VOR.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Flintibacter
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Entries for Encyclopedias and Dictionaries- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118960608.gbm01734
Impact of carbohydrate substrate complexity on the diversity of the human colonic microbiota
FEMS Microbiology Ecology, vol. 95, no. 1, fiy201Contributions to Journals: Articles