Professor Chris Seal
Prof of Food & Human Nutrition

  • Email: chris.seal@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 7650
  • Fax: +44 (0) 191 222 6720
  • Address: Human Nutrition Research Centre
    School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
    Agriculture Building
    Kings Road Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU

Roles and Responsibilities

Deputy Head, School of Agriculture, Food & Rural Development
Research Director, School of Agriculture, Food & Rural Development
Member of SAgE Faculty Research Committee
Menber of SAgE Faculty Promotions Committee
Member of School Postgraduate Committee

Qualifications  BSc PhD

Registered Nutritionist

Previous Positions

1983 - Present, Newcastle University
1983 – 1986 Demonstrator, Department of Agricultural Biochemistry and Nutrition.
1986 – 1992 Research Associate, Department of Biological and Nutritional Sciences.
1993 – 1994 Senior Research Associate, Department of Biological and Nutritional Sciences.
1994 – 1998 Lecturer (Grade B), Department of Biological and Nutritional Sciences.
1998 – 2005 Lecturer (Grade B) in Food Studies, Department of Biological and Nutritional Sciences; then School of Agriculture, Food & Rural Development (AFRD).
2005 – 2008 Senior Lecturer in Food Studies, AFRD.
2008 – Present Professor of Food & Human Nutrition, AFRD.

Memberships

Nutrition Society
Association for the Study of Obesity
Institute of Food Science and Technology

Research Interests

Effect of diet on health and disease, with a particular focus on the role of wholegrain foods, fruits and vegetables in cardiovascular disease prevention.

Effects of diet on antioxidant status and possible consequences in health and disease.

Current Work

Department of Health-funded dietary intervention to investigate the effect of increasing consumption of green leafy vegetables and beetroot on cardiovascular risk factors.

Previous research includes large-scale dietary interventions funded by the Food Standards Agency (a) to investigate effects of increased consumption of wholegrain foods on cardiovascular risk [joint project with the MRC-Human Nutrition Research Group, Cambridge], and (b) to assess the usefulness of alkylrecorsinols and mammalian lignans and metabolomics as potential biomarkers of whole grain-intake.

Determining whole grain consumption in the UK population.

Behavioural studies have also been completed on the acceptability of whole grains and barriers to their consumption.

Antioxidant content of organic and conventional foodstuffs, and the effect of organic farming practices on food product quality.

Research Roles

In addition to leading a number of research projects, and supervising postgraduate students, I have been a member of the steering committees of another FSA-funded projects in collaboration with members of the Human Nutrition Research Centre.

Postgraduate Supervision

Mr Ahmed Z Javid, 'Dietary antioxidant status in relation to oral health'. Iranian Government Scholarship. Completed 2010. Joint supervisor with Dr Paula Moynihan, School of Dental Sciences.

Mr Javed Sultan; MD student 'Effect of perioperative immunonutrtion for oesophago-gastric cancer on antioxidant status, oxidative damage and clinical outcome'. Completed 2010 [part time]. Joint supervisor with Professor Mike Griffin, School of Surgical and Reproductive Sciences. 

Mr Socrates Stergiadis 'Effect of organic feeding on nutritional quality of milk'. Greek Government Scholarship. Completed 2009. Joint supervisor with Professor Carlo Leifert and Mrs. Gillian Butler, School of Agriculture, Food & Rural Development.

Mr Suresh Kumar, 'Identification of bioactive components in plant extracts for the prevention of Alzheimer's Disease'. Indian Government Scholarship.  Completed 2009. Joint supervisor with Dr Ed Okello, School of Agriculture, Food & Rural Development.

Ms Afroditi Theodoropoulou 'Pest Management in Organic Greenhouse Tomatoes'. EU project funded.  Completed 2009. Joint supervisor with Professor Carlo Leifert, School of Agriculture, Food & Rural Development.

Ms Angela Jones, Acceptability of and barriers to consumption of wholegrain foods. BBSRC-CASE studentship with Cereal Partners UK. Completed 2007.

Mr Abdulbaset Nagah, Antioxidant properties of wholegrain foods. Libyan Government funded. Completed 2006.

Esteem Indicators

Supplements Editor, British Journal of Nutrition .
External Appraiser, Food Standards Agency.
External Assessor for the South African National Research Foundation.
External Assessor for the programmes de recherche en alimentation PNRA et ALIA, France.

Invited speaker, Satellite to Canadian Dietetics Association Annual Meeting, May 2010.
Invited speaker Experimental Biology, Satellite to Association for Nutrition Annual Meeting, Anaheim, US, April 2010.
Opening keynote lecture, 3rd International Immunonutrition Workshop, Platja D’Aro, Spain, October 2009;
Plenary Lecture and Chair of Scientific Committee and Organising Committee, Cereals&Europe Spring Meeting – Whole Grain Global Summit, Newcastle University, March 2009;
Keynote lecture, Go Grains Conference, Sydney Australia, October 2008;
Symposium presentation, International Congress of Dietetics, Yokohoma, Japan, September 2008;
Symposium presentation, International Association for Cereal Science and Technology, Madrid, Spain, June 2008
Symposium presentation, 9th Nordic Nutrition Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 2008;
Invited speaker, Vitafoods International, Geneva, Switzerland, May 2008;
Symposium presentation, Korean Food Science and Nutrition Society Annual Meeting, Muju, Korea, October 2007

Projects

Undergraduate Teaching

ACE3090 Food & Human Nutrition Honours Projects (ML)
ACE3062 Sports and Exercise Nutrition (ML)
ACE3054 Plants as Food
ACE3052 Human Nutrition
ACE3051 Human Nutrition and Health
ACE2046 Quantitative Techniques (ML)
ACE2040 Experimental Food Science (ML)
ACE2036 Nutrition Principles
ACE1052 Introduction to Physiology
ACE1025 Nutrition and Food Science (ML)
ACE1018 Introduction to Nutrition and Food Scienc