The Health College has a multidisciplinary on the relationships between food and health.
Issues, challenges and positioning
The Health College takes a position on the impact of dietary and environmental factors on human health throughout life. In particular, it studies the understanding of the dietary needs of specific populations (seniors, pregnant women, children, athletes, people with chronic diseases, etc.). A major challenge concerns chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) related to our modern life.
The Health College's projects focus on the impact of nutrition across the lifespan: the needs of pregnant women and infants during the first 1000 days with the impact of nutrition during this period on health status in adulthood but also improving the quality of life and health behaviours of the aging population and people with chronic diseases.
Skills and teams
The Health College is composed of 11 associate professors, 4 study engineers and 2 technicians and is supported by two teams:
The research team Food processes and transformations and their effects on health (PETALES, EA 7519 Processing & Agroressources)
The PETALES team is studying the functionalization and maintenance of intestinal homeostasis, which is a major element for health, by studying the positive and negative impact of food consumption, whether or not it has been processed.
The associate professor evaluate the impact of molecular assemblies resulting from processing and/or newly formed compounds on the establishment and maintenance of intestinal homeostasis, particularly during the early period of life. Indeed, early disruptions may increase the risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases.
In this context, the understanding of biological effects, molecular and cellular mechanisms and the measurement of their potential impacts are based on the implementation of in vivo and in vitro models.
The Nutrition, Food and Human Health Business Unit (PANASH)
The main objective of the PANASH unit is to improve the eating behaviors and health status of different at-risk populations. PANASH is interested in supporting patients with chronic diseases and the elderly. Since 2010, PANASH has been working to identify the needs of patients under treatment and in their ability to eat, in order to validate operational food and culinary solutions. PANASH's expertise has thus enabled the development of "Vite Fait - Bienfaits", a nutritional approach integrated into the therapeutic education scheme of the oncology patient, which allows support both for patients, direct or indirect caregivers, and catering professionals ("Grand Prix Spécial 2017" of SIRHA). PANASH is also developing innovative preventive health intervention programs for the elderly. These programs are set up in the form of workshops, ranging from balanced diet and culinary practices adapted to age-related chronic diseases to mental health and adapted sports practice ("Innovation & Prevention" 2018 "Innovation & Prevention" prize from Eurasanté & Santelys).
Missions
The Health College is strongly involved in UniLaSalle's engineering training programs ("AgroFood and Health", "Agronomy and Agro-industries" in initial training, apprenticeship or VAE), in continuing education, as well as in international training programs piloted by UniLaSalle and focused on the link between food and health ("Spring Semester in Nutritional Sciences" and "Culinary sciences and health benefits: from field to plate").
The Health College is also, in collaboration with the Community of Universities and Institutions Lille Nord de France and the University of Lille, at the origin of the France Excellence "Impact of Food Processing on Human Health" predoctoral summer school aimed at promoting research excellence in France to Chinese and South American audiences.
Our scientific activities are divided into an academic research component but also into a component of services, development and technology transfer in the fields of food and health.
Our activities cover a field of application ranging from the genome to the cell and from pre-clinical studies to clinical and epidemiological research and the application of intervention tools in health education and health catering.
The equipment
To carry out their missions, our teams rely on research platforms, including :
- Microbiology platform (link to the platform page)
- Molecular and Cellular Biology Platform (link to the platform page)
- Analytical chemistry platform (link to the platform page)
- Culinary practices platform (link to the platform page)