![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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Faecalibacterium prausnitzii A2-165 has a high capacity to induce IL-10 in human and murine dendritic cells and modulates T cell responses
Scientific Reports, vol. 6, pp. 1-12Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep18507
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/5382/1/srep18507.pdf
Enhanced butyrate formation by cross-feeding between Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Bifidobacterium adolescentis
FEMS Microbiology Letters, vol. 362, no. 21, fnv176Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnv176
Mucosa-associated Faecalibacterium prausnitzii phylotype richness is reduced in inflammatory bowel disease patients
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 81, no. 21, pp. 7582-7592Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.02006-15
Unique Organization of Extracellular Amylases into Amylosomes in the Resistant Starch-Utilizing Human Colonic Firmicutes Bacterium Ruminococcus bromii
mBio, vol. 6, no. 5, e01058-15Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01058-15
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/5127/1/mBio_2015_Ze_.pdf
Ruminococcal cellulosome systems from rumen to human
Environmental Microbiology, vol. 17, no. 9, pp. 3407-3426Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12868
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/7404/1/emi12868.pdf
Modelling the emergent dynamics and major metabolites of the human colonic microbiota
Environmental Microbiology, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 1615-1630Contributions to Journals: ArticlesFaecalibacterium prausnitzii Strain HTF-F and Its Extracellular Polymeric Matrix Attenuate Clinical Parameters in DSS-Induced Colitis
PloS ONE, vol. 10, no. 4, e0123013Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123013
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/4605/1/PlosOne.pdf
Links between diet, gut microbiota composition and gut metabolism
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 13-22Contributions to Journals: Literature Reviews- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665114001463
Microbes Central to Human Reproduction
American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 1-11Contributions to Journals: Review articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/aji.12319
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Influence of dietary carbohydrate and protein on colonic fermentation and endogenous formation of N-nitroso compounds
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, vol. 74, no. OCE1, pp. E44Contributions to Journals: Abstracts- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665115000592