“Preserving immunity with ageing: can nutrition play a role?” - Prof Philip Calder

The talk will cover the following:
The immune system: what is it, what is its role and how does it work?
The immune system in health and disease
How the gut microbiota is involved in immunity
Immune decline with ageing
Why good nutrition is important for a heathy immune response - which nutrients are important?
Our current research in this area
Philip Calder is Professor of Nutritional Immunology and Head of the School of Human Development and Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. He has a PhD in Biochemistry (1987) from Massey University in New Zealand. He spent 8 years (1987-1995) at University of Oxford where he began his research on nutrition and immunity and on fatty acids. He was appointed at the University of Southampton in 1995. Professor Calder is an Internationally recognised researcher on a) nutritional immunology; b) the metabolism and functionality of fatty acids with an emphasis on the roles of omega-3 fatty acids. He has received many awards and prizes including the Normann Medal (German Society of Fat Science; 2009), the Ralph Holman Lifetime Achievement Award (American Oil Chemists’ Society; 2015), the prestigious Danone International Prize for Nutrition (2016), the DSM Lifetime Achievement Prize in Human Nutrition (2017) and the European Lipid Science Award (2021). He was President of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (2009-2012), Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (2012-2016), President of the Nutrition Society (2016-2019) and President of the European Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (2019-2021). He is currently President of the Federation of European Nutrition Societies. Professor Calder was Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition (2006-2013) and has served on many other Editorial Boards, He is currently Associate Editor of Clinical Science, Journal of Nutrition and Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism.