Postdoctoral researcher for MSCA-IF-2019 call: dietary polyphenols and human health

We are looking for a candidate from outside Spain who plan to submit applications for independent research fellowships through the mobility program Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF). The candidate would join the POLIBIBAN (non-extractable polyphenols, antioxidants and dietary fibre in health), at the Department of Metabolism and Nutrition, of the Institute of Food Science, Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN-CSIC), in Madrid, Spain.

ICTAN-CSIC

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Its research is driven by more than 100 hundreds centres and institutes and its more than 15,000 staff, of whom more than 3,000 are staff researchers and the same number again are doctors and scientists who are still training. CSIC has 6% of all the staff dedicated to Research and Development in Spain, and they generate approximately 20% of all scientific production in the country.

ICTAN is placed in the premises of CSIC Campus at the Ciudad Universitaria in Madrid. ICTAN is willing to deploy R&D activities in the forefront of international knowledge and become a worldwide reference center to meet society needs in the area of food production and human well-being through nutrition. For this, it has a total staff of more than 120 people, as well as relevant facilities: Unit of Human nutrition in order to develop nutritional clinical trials; Unit of Sensory Analysis; a Pilot Plan for Food Technology; and a Unit of Analytical Services (with equipments such as mass spectrometers), among others.

Research lines of the research team

POLIFIBAN research team is focused on the study of dietary polyphenols, with especial emphasis to the so-called non-extractable polyphenols. These compounds, present if the food matrix as polymeric structures or linked to polymeric molecules such as dietary fibre (for this reason they are also called macromolecular antioxidants) are common in plant foods and they contribute to the daily intake of polyphenols. Moreover, preclinical and clinical studies have shown relevant health effects of non-extractable polyphenols rich matrixes. Nevertheless, they are still scarcely studied in the field of dietary polyphenols.

Our research team explores these compounds from a multi-disciplinary perspective, including characterization in foods, identification of new  sources (including byproducts) for the production new ingredients; evaluation of in vitro bioaccessibility; evaluation of the metabolic fate of these compounds through clinical studies; evaluation of the health effects of these compounds by performing nutritional clinical trials.

We are looking for a junior scientist with experience in the field of food science and nutrition in order to join our current on-going projects (seed details below), through MSCA-IF 2019 funding. In particular, the candidate will develop his project within the nutritional clinical trials included in the recently funded grant “Dietary high molecular weight flavanols as cardioprotective adjuvants in type 2 diabetes: from their molecular mechanism to their preclinical and clinical effects”.

Potential candidates please send a CV together with a motivation letter to Dr. Jara Pérez-Jiménez (jara.perez@ictan.csic.es)

Representative publications in the last five years

Díaz-Rubio ME, Pérez-Jiménez J, Martínez-Bartolomé MA, Álvarez I, Saura-Calixto F. Regular consumption of an antioxidant-rich juice improves oxidative status and causes metabolome changes in healthy adults. Plant Foods Human Nutr., 70, 2015, 9-142015

Pérez-Jiménez J, Saura-Calixto F. Macromolecular antioxidants or non-extractable polyphenols in fruit and vegetables: intake in four European countries. Food Res. Intl., 74, 2015, 315-23Sanz-Pintos N, Pérez-Jiménez J, Buschmann AH, Vergara-Salinas JR, Pérez-Correa JR, Saura-Calixto F. Macromolecular antioxidants and dietary fiber in edible seaweeds. J. Food Sci., 82, 2017, 289-95.

Pérez-Ramírez I, Reynoso-Camacho R, Saura-Calixto F, Pérez-Jiménez J. Comprehensive characterization of extractable and non-extractable phenolic compounds by HPLC-ESI-QTOF of a grape/pomegranate pomace dietary supplement. J. Agric. Food Chem., 66,2018,  661-73.

Blancas-Benítez FJ, Pérez-Jiménez J, Montalvo-González E, González-Aguilar GA, Sáyago-Ayerdi SG. In vitro evaluation of the kinetics of the release of phenolic compounds from guava fruit (Psidium guajava L.)” J. Funct. Foods, 43, 2018, 139-45.

Molinar-Toribio E, Fuguet E, Ramos-Romero S, Taltavull N, Méndez L, Nogués MR, Medina I, Torres JL, Pérez- Jiménez J. A high-fat high-sucrose diet affects the long-term metabolic fate of grape proanthocyanidins in rats”Eur. J. Nutr., 57,2018, 339-49.

Nascimento-Souza A, Gontijo de Paiva P, Pérez-Jiménez J, Do Carmo Castro Franceschini S, Queiroz Ribeiro A. “stimated dietary intake and major food sources of polyphenols in elderly of Viçosa, Brazil: a population-based study” Eur. J. Nutr., 57, 2018, 617-27.

Pérez-Jiménez J, Saura-Calixto F. “Fruit peels as sources of non-extractable polyphenols or macromolecular antioxidants: analysis and nutritional implications” Food Res. Intl., 111, 2018, 148-52.

Herranz B, Álvarez MD, Pérez-Jiménez J. Association of plasma and urine viscosity with cardiometabolic risk factors and oxidative status. A pilot study in subjects with abdominal obesity. PLOS One, 13, 2018, e0204075

Martínez-Maqueda D, Zapatera B, Gallego-Narbón A, Vaquero MP, Saura-Calixto F, Pérez-Jiménez J. A 6-weeks supplementation with grape pomace to subjects at cardiometabolic risk ameliorated insulin sensitivity, without affecting other cardiometabolic parameters. Food Function, 9, 2018, 6010-19.

Saura-Calixto F, Pérez-Jiménez J (editors). Non-extractable polyphenols and carotenoids: importance in human nutrition and health. Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, 2018, ISBN: 978-1-78801-106-8.

Current research grants

California Table Grape Commission, Health Research Grants 2018-19, “Potential modulatory effect of whole grape on second-meal tolerance in obese subjects: role of polyphenols” (PI)

Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, “Dietary high molecular weight flavanols as cardioprotective adjuvants in type 2 diabetes: from their molecular mechanism to their preclinical and clinical effects”, RTI2018-095059-B-I00 (Participant)

Collaborations

The research team develops continuous collaboration with several national and international researchers. During the last three years active collaborations took place with the following researchers: Dr. R.M. Lamuela-Raventós, university of Barcelona, Spain; Prof. J.L. Torres, institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catolonia (IQAC-CSIC), Barcelona; Dr. Sonia González-Solares, University of Oviedo, Spain; Dr. R. Reynoso-Camacho, Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico; Dr. S.G. Sáyago-Ayerdi, Tepic Technology Institute, Mexico; Dr. J.R. Pérez-Correa, Catholic University, Chile; Dr. J. Parada, Austral university, Chile; D. c. Rojas-Garbanzo, university of Costa Rica.