Dr Juliet Ansell
Position: Former Science Group Leader, Plant & Food Research. Currently Head of Global Science and Innovation, Zespri International. Field: Food Innovation – Food and Nutrition.
Dr Juliet Ansell grew up in England and has a doctorate degree in human tropical parasitology from Oxford University, which involved fieldwork with school children in Tanzania, East Africa.
Dr Juliet Ansell in the lab
Dr Juliet Ansell is a science group leader of a Plant & Food Research team investigating the responsiveness of gut bacteria to certain plant foods like broccoli and kiwifruit.
Juliet has also worked in laboratories in the UK, Africa, Australia and New Zealand on a diverse range of research questions including transmission of HIV from mother to baby, malaria in pregnant women and cattle ticks on European breeds in Queensland, Australia.
Until 2014 Juliet led research exploring the interactions between food, the human gut and the resident microbial ecosystem at Plant & Food Research. Of particular interest is discovering the role of microbes in biochemical and physiological processes essential to the development and maintenance of healthy digestive and immune systems.
Part of this research was investigating potential functional food ingredients from fruit, vegetables and grains. The knowledge gained will be used in future development of elite cultivars and leading-edge food products.
I find the discovery side of science really exciting. Designing an experiment to test a theory and being able to find out the answer is still what motivates me.
At Plant & Food Research, she led major research programmes with government and industry support involving in vitro, in vivo and human clinical trial work.
The research aimed to better understand the interactions between micro- and macronutrients, their digestion, absorption and fermentation as they pass through the gut and the downstream effects of foods and their metabolites on human health throughout the body.
In terms of health endpoints, she is interested in gut health, chronic inflammatory conditions, weight management and energy use.
Researching gut health in the lab
Dr Juliet Ansell is a Science Group Leader at Plant & Food Research, Palmerston North. Juliet outlines the research project she leads that investigates the interactions between food, gut bacteria and health. There are 3 parts to the research involving in vitro work, animal models and human clinical trials.
Juliet enjoys her work as a scientist. She says, “Having a degree of uncertainty and risk in my job is also what keeps life exciting, and knowing that what I do and find out is going to have a real impact on people’s quality of life is very rewarding.”
At Zespri, Juliet oversees health and nutrition research with the various kiwifruit varieties in the global market. Juliet’s focus is the multi-centre clinical trial that Zespri is conducting in New Zealand, Italy and Japan. The trial aims to provide clinical evidence that eating green kiwifruit contributes to digestive comfort and function. Juliet joined Zespri full time in July 2015, having previously worked there in a part-time role on secondment from Plant & Food Research.
Read more about Dr Juliet Ansell’s work on ‘gut health’.
Useful links
Find out more about the kiwfruit project that Juliet is working on in this news article.
For more about Zepri's Health & Nutrition research, see their website.
This article is based on information current in 2011 and updated in 2018.
