Alan Walker
Institution: University of Aberdeen, UK
Workpackage: Gut Health and Microbiome
Email: alessia.gasco@gmail.com
Focus of research:Identifying whether or not there are microbiome ‘signatures’ in newborns that are predictive of later physical, cognitive and health trajectory characteristic of stunting and stunting type.
Alan Walker graduated in Microbiology at the University of Aberdeen. Then he took his PhD at the Rowett Institute and at the University of Dundee, specialising in gut microbiology and the role that intestinal bacteria play in the breakdown of dietary fibre. He spent eight and a half years at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, a renowned centre for genomics research, where he investigated the state of the art DNA sequencing facilities to better characterise host-associated microbial communities and shed light on the roles these microbes play both in health and in diseases such Cystic Fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease and infection with Salmonella spp. and Clostridium difficile. He is now a Senior Lecturer/Principal Investigator at the Rowett Institute within the University of Aberdeen.