Paula Dominguez-salas

Biography

Paula has a background in veterinary sciences and in food technology, and has an MSc and a PhD in Global Public Health Nutrition. She joined LSHTM in 2009 and worked until 2013 at the LSHTM Medical Research Council International Nutrition Group. She left LSHTM to work at a Royal Veterinary College (RVC)/ International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) position until early 2017. She re-joined LSHTM in 2017 as an Assistant Professor in Nutrition-sensitive agriculture. She now holds a joint position LSHTM-ILRI. 

Research Interest

After working several years in food hygiene and safety in Europe and low- and middle-income countries (West Africa and South America), for the past 10 years Paula’s research has focused in maternal and child nutrition. She initially studied the effect of seasonality in maternal nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa and different outcomes, including epigenetic profiles of their offspring and aflatoxin exposure in The Gambia. She recently merged her two main interest together and moved to the interface between agriculture, specifically livestock production and animal-source foods, and human nutrition, particularly focusing in livestock value chains, food safety and gender aspects. At present, she is involved in research in East Africa. She is involved in two projects in Tanzania related to Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) strategy design and to women empowerment among pastoralists. She is also involved in work on urban livestock value chains in Kenya, including a randomised controlled trial to assess the impact of a dairy market intervention in Nairobi, on Nutrition. She has also conducted a systematic review on animal-source foods supplementation and nutrition during the first 1000 days for a Chatham House report, and is involved in advocacy work. Beyond working on a regular basis with multidisciplinar teams at LSHTM, ILRI, RVC and LCIRAH, she collaborates with researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Emory University, Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, University of Nairobi in Kenya and with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).