“I guess it’s quite trendy”: New research explores young meat-eaters’ sustainable food consumption habits.

This post is by Dr Qian Yang, Assistant Professor in Sensory and Consumer Science and Hannah Ford, PhD student in Sensory and Consumer Science. Consumers are influential in determining the success of new products and future food trends. As the market for sustainable food continues to expand, there is a need to understand how consumers’ …

Will meat alternatives ever taste as good as meat?

This post is by Professor Ian Fisk, Professor of Flavour Science at the University of Nottingham. When we are asked to think of the flavour of meat, we might come up with its characteristic aroma during cooking. However, the overall flavour that we perceive is very complex and is a mix of multiple sensory attributes; …

The growing power of the rhizotrons! – An interview with Dr Jonathan Atkinson

Dr Jonathan Atkinson is a Senior Research Fellow, Technologist in Phenomics, and co-founder of the Future Food Beacon’s Makerspace. He stars in our new video Future Food: an introduction to the Makerspace, which we highly recommend that you watch! In this blog, we ask why and how Dr Atkinson designed and built his largest creations …

Genomic sequencing and Covid-19

Deep Seq, the University of Nottingham’s state of the art high-throughput genomics facility, is currently part of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, mapping the spread of coronavirus. We spoke to Prof Matt Loose and Dr Christopher Moore, about the work, the equipment they use, and how they are adjusting to this new challenge. Tell us …

Doing science in the field: stories from our Colombian cocoa project

Dr Christopher Moore and Dr David Gopaulchan travelled to Colombia together in May 2019 to carry out scientific sampling of the cocoa fermentation process on different farms. David recently travelled back to Colombia for the second harvest, to conduct further sampling, in November and December 2019. We spoke to David and Chris about the experiences, …

The Future Food Beacon MakerSpace

We spoke to Principal Research Fellow Darren Wells, Dr Jonathan Atkinson, and Dr Michael Wilson about the new MakerSpace, located in the Plant Sciences building here on Sutton Bonington campus. Tell us about the MakerSpace… The Future Food Beacon MakerSpace is an innovation hub established to support experimental and outreach activities in Biosciences and elsewhere. …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Christopher Moore

Dr Chris Moore is a geneticist and the Future Food Beacon technologist. He is based in Deep Seq, where he performs DNA sequencing and provides genomics support for Future Food researchers. Chris helps researchers to plan their sequencing projects, carries out the lab work and transfers data to bioinformaticians, such as Dr Michael Wilson, for …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Jonathan Atkinson

Jon Atkinson is a Senior Research Fellow and Technologist in Phenomics for the Future Food Beacon. As well as conducting his own research, his role is designed to help other researchers do their research by developing phenotyping equipment and kit. He will be working in the dedicated makerspace that has been developed within the Future Food …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson is a Senior Research Fellow and Technologist in Bioinformatics for the Future Food Beacon. Michael handles sequencing data, data derived from the DeepSeq facility, and conducts integrative analysis. His role is to support biologists in handling the large amount of data to be produced. Michael is also responsible for the digital requirements of …