I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
There are 5 groups of nutrients which our body needs for growth, health and repair: carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, minerals and vitamins. Our body cannot produce all the nutrients it needs and therefore we consume food to gain these nutrients.
My work focuses on how certain nutrients influence the control of motility. Usually if a nutrient is good there will be more mixing type contractions or ‘segmentation’ which help the food to be broken down and absorbed, instead of just being passed along and removed as waste when you observe more ‘propulsive’ or peristaltic movements.
My research has shown that certain nutrients such as fatty acids (small unit which make up lipids) are important in creating this mixing type of movement. What’s more these pattern are regulated by the guts nervous system the enteric nervous system (ENS) and that you can control the amount of movement/activity. This can be important for developing drugs to treat disorders such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) which diarrhea and constipation can prevent normal mixing and digestion.
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