Clare Mills

University of Manchester
Manchester United Kingdom

Biographical Sketch: After a short spell in London at the Department of health after she completed her PhD, Prof. Clare Mills went to work at the BBSRC Institute of Food Research (IFR) in Norwich where she became a head of the Physical Biochemistry Group in 1999. In 2005 she took over the leadership of the food material science research at IFR and working with four other research leaders developed a new programme of research relating food structure to health benefits of foods. This has also involved promoting a transdisciplinary approach, linking physical scientists with physiologists, clinicians and psychologists to achieve its overall aims and goals. In her capacity as a BBSRC Institute Strategic Programme Grant leader she was also a member of the IFR Executive Board. In 2011 she moved to the University of Manchester to take up her current position. Based in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology and working with the Respiratory and Allergy Research team at the University Hospital of South Manchester led by Professor Adnan Custovic, she is now applying molecular science to understand, better diagnose and treat food allergies. This research stems from work she has done through a series of projects funded across several EU Frame Work Programmes. Through these projects she developed a network of researchers that put forward the expression of interest on food allergy which subsequently the consortium applied for, and won, and came on to become the EuroPrevall project. Successfully completed at the end of 2009 the future challenge will be to realise the knowledge currently locked up in the large amounts of data and biological samples (including DNA) collected through the project activities in the coming years to understand the basis of food allergies and deliver more effective management strategies.

Papers:
From EuroPrevall to iFAAM – Insights into Food Allergen Management