Working Group 4
How do the brain and gut communicate to regulate food intake and shape eating behaviours?
Exploring gut-brain interactions that shape appetite, eating behaviours and the impact of weight loss interventions of the GIBA.
This working group brings together experts from across disciplines to examine how interactions between the gut microbiota, gastrointestinal system, immune function, and the nervous system shape appetite regulation and eating behaviours. This includes understanding how weight-loss interventions, including GLP-1 based therapies, influence the gut-immune-brain axis and their broader implications for human health. Beyond advancing mechanistic insight, the group explores how this emerging knowledge can be translated into meaningful health benefits. Discussions span the lifecourse, from the role of the gut-brain axis in early appetite development, to its potential in obesity prevention and management, and its application in addressing age-related anorexia.
Working Group Leads
Aygul Dagbasi
Registered Dietitian and Research Fellow at Imperial College London
Aygul has always been inspired by the power of nutrition in shaping human health. Motivated by this passion, she trained as a dietitian to understand how to optimize health through everyday dietary choices. She worked as a registered dietitian within the NHS, supporting a diverse patient population.
Her career shifted toward research in 2016 when she was awarded the Dean’s Master’s Scholarship by Imperial College to pursue a Master’s degree in Clinical Research. In 2017, she received the President’s PhD Scholarship to continue her studies as a doctoral student at Imperial College under the supervision of Professor Gary Frost and Professor Kevin Murphy. She completed her PhD in early 2022, focusing on the role of food structures in shaping gut microbiota, ileal metabolites, and appetite regulation.
In 2022, she was awarded the BNF Pump Priming Award to further develop her PhD research as an early-career scientist. She currently works at Imperial College under the supervision of Professor Gary Frost, investigating the effects of food structures on digestion, bacterial metabolism, nutrient sensing, and appetite hormone release using both in vivo and in vitro techniques. In addition, she contributes to research as part of the EU-funded Co-diet project. She is also the coordinator of a BBSRC-funded multidisciplinary network on ageing research, the Ageing and Nutrient Sensing Network.
Luise Marino
Associate Director Research – AHP, SWYT; Clinical Academic Paediatric Dietitian & Associate Professor (Hon) at University of Southampton
Dr Luise Marino is an Associate Director in Research for Allied Health Professionals. She aims to increase the capability and capacity of AHPs to deliver research to improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes across the lifecourse. Luise has several research interests, which seek to improve nutrition and clinical outcomes in children with long term physical and mental health conditions by reducing the impact of household food insecurity on children with long term physical and mental health conditions and to consider ways to deliver more sustainable medical nutrition and food within the healthcare system.
Jonathan Swann
Director of the GIBA Network+
Jonathan Swann is a Professor of Biomolecular Medicine in the School of Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton.
For over 20 years he has led an integrated microbial and metabolic profiling-based research programme to understand the influence of the gut microbiota on the mammalian metabolic system and its implications for development, health, and disease with a specific interest in the gut-immune-brain axis. He has received funding from national and international research councils, charities and industry partners to explore the microbial influence on emotional behaviour, cognitive function, neurodevelopment, neurological dysfunction and neurodegeneration.
