Dr Zoe Yates

Biography

Zoe is a Research Fellow in Human Molecular Nutrition in the Discipline of Applied Sciences, in the School of Environmental & Life Sciences. Over the last decade I have developed a career in nutritional genetics. In 1999, I became a British Heart Foundation PhD Scholar at Leeds University, and as a graduate student studied the important interaction between folate status, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of genes that code for B-vitamin dependent enzymes and human health. The focus of my research endeavours was the role of C677T MTHFR and vascular complications. Between 2005 and 2007 I worked at the University of Nottingham examining the biological basis of foetal programming and adult disease. The study investigated the early life programming of disease, addressing the molecular mechanisms that may link foetal nutrition to later life atherosclerosis. In particular, it considered the effect of maternal under-nutrition (particularly a low protein diet) and the effect of maternal hyperlipidaemia (induced by a high fat/high cholesterol diet) during pregnancy on the subsequent development of atherosclerosis in the offspring of apoE*Leiden mice. Currently I am appointed as a University of Newcastle Research Fellow within the School of Environmental & Life Sciences, Ourimbah campus (commenced June 2007). The purpose of this appointment is to broaden the Molecular Nutrition research portfolio to encompass a range of degenerative disorders, both related to vascular disease and cancer. More specifically I aim to develop in vitro and in vivo methodologies that examine genomic integrity and provide a simple functional measure of nutritional adequacy along with a measure of modulatory pressures exerted by common SNPs in B-vitamin related genes. Essentially, my research interests cover nutritional biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics of disease processes, in particularly how folate bioavailability, metabolism, nutritional status and genetics modulate risk of serious human conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia, spina bifida and other conditions affecting pregnancy outcomes. In addition, I am interested in the very topical issues associated with mandatory fortification of grain at source with synthetic folic acid. Since being in Australia I have been invited to speak at several conferences including the 3rd Asia Pacific Nutrigenomics Conference in Melbourne (2008) and the 2nd Meeting of Nutrition Society Australia (Newcastle, 2008). I have authored/co-authored over 35 peer-reviewed scientific publications including several in extremely high impact factor journals such as Nature Reviews Genetics, Lancet, and Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and also have a chapter in Folate and Development. Last year I obtained a Ramaciotti Foundation Establishment Grant to pursue my line of research, and in 2007 was successful in obtaining a University of Newcastle Strategic Pilot Grant to look at bitter taste phenotype, dietary pattern and nutritional genetics in the aetiopathology of human colonic adenoma/cancer. My professional activities include being a committee member of Nutrition Society of Australia (Newcastle) and an active member of University of Newcastle's Institutional Biosafety Committee.

Research Interest

Nutrition and Dietetics , Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences