John Mathers, Ph.D.
Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle on Tyne, UK

John Mathers is Professor of Human Nutrition and Director of the Human Nutrition Research Centre in the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University, UK. He is a past President of the Nutrition Society. John Mathers undertook his undergraduate studies in Newcastle University and received his PhD in Nutrition from Cambridge University. He was a post doc in Cambridge University and then in University of Edinburgh before being appointed to Newcastle University. His major research interests are in understanding how what we eat influences risks of common complex diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer. John Mathers was a founding member of NuGO (the European Nutrigenomics Organisation) and his research includes use of genomic and epigenomics tools to understand the mechanisms though which nutrition influences cell function and, ultimately, health. He also studies how nutrition affects the ageing process. John Mathers directed the recently-completed LiveWell Programme which has developed and piloted behavioural interventions to promote healthy ageing and also the development of tools to measure how well we age. This research is informing the development of lifestyle-based interventions to promote healthy musculoskeletal ageing through the MRC and Arthritis UK-funded Centre for Integrated Research on Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA). John Mathers’ recent research also includes the EU-funded Food4Me project in which he led an intervention study which investigated the effectiveness of personalised nutrition approaches in changing in eating patterns.