Marianne Nissen Lund

Marianne Nissen Lund

Professor

Marianne Nissen Lund (formerly Marianne Lund Lametsch) obtained her MSc degree in food science and technology (cand. techn. al.) from KVL (The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University) with special focus on food chemistry, and was awarded her PhD degree in Dec 2007. She has been affiliated with Department of Food Science at University of Copenhagen since 2004 with a break as industrial postdoc at Novozymes in 2011-2013, where she has focused on understanding the chemical mechanisms that are important to food quality and stability. She was appointed associate professor in Jan 2012 at Department of Food Science. In 2015 she was jointly appointed as associate professor at Department of Biomedical Sciences and Department of Food Science to increase the strategic collaboration between the departments and build a research field in the gap between food and health sciences. In 2019 she was appointed professor of food chemistry.


Read more about Marianne's research group here.

In 2022 Marianne became part of the leadership of UCPH forward, which is a talent management programme at UCPH:

Read more about the UCPH forward programme

Primary fields of research

My main research topics are: Protein oxidation, Maillard reactions, and polyphenol-protein interactions.

Research vision of the Food Proteins group: To enhance food quality by understanding complex chemical interactions between food components, and to implement this knowledge in sustainable and healthy food designs.

The Food Proteins Group focuses on cross-disciplinary research in food science and utilizes advanced analytical chemistry and biochemistry techniques in combination with data science to understand and improve shelf-life stability, sensory quality (taste) and health effects of all types of food. We address the fundamental challenge of understanding chemical interactions between food components during production and storage, and implement this knowledge in rational, sustainable and healthy food design. Of special interest is the inhibition and control of protein modifications, which cause deterioration of food quality and induce risk of inflammatory and immunogenic responses. This includes protein modifications induced by processing conditions and the presence of oxidants, reducing sugars, polyphenols, and enzymes. We investigate how these protein modifications influence taste, color, molecular functionality, accumulation of damaged materials, and decrease in nutritional value. We utilize this knowledge to develop healthy and sustainable plant-based foods for the future and to upcycle side streams from food production in order to reduce food waste. Our aim is to develop an in-depth mechanistic understanding of complex interactions of food components and we use a hypothetico-deductive approach to guide experimental design and methodology in collaboration with the food industry.

Current research

PI of challenge grant: “SEEDFOOD: Functional and palatable plant seed storage proteins for sustainable foods”, 2022-2027, Novo Nordisk Foundation. Co-PIs: A. Bühl, DTU Bioengineering, T. Nicolai, University of Le Mans, France, & L. Arhné, UCPH-FOOD.

Link to SEEDFOOD

 

PI of GUDP project: ”INFANT-I: Tailored processing of bioactive ingredients for high-end infant formulas”, 2018-2022, Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark, Green Development and Demonstration programme. Collaboration partners: Arla Foods Ingredients; Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, UCPH.

 

PI of Sapere Aude research leader grant: “INSITUQUANT: In situ quantification of protein modifications in foods”, 2018-2022, Independent Research Fund Denmark.

 

PI of research project 2: “ICOM: Inhibition and control of Maillard reactions in dairy foods by plant polyphenols”, 2018-2023, Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF | Technology and Production Sciences (FTP)). Collaboration partners: Arla Foods amba; Arla Foods Ingredients.

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