We are very happy to introduce our newest members of staff, making us a very international group, we have Marisol, originally from Peru and, Daniela from Costa Rica.

Dr Marisol Warthon-Medina has a PhD in Nutritional Science and manages our MRC project “Capacity building in dietary monitoring and public health nutrition in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR)”. The EMR includes Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, West Bank & Gaza Strip, Jordan, Sudan, Syria Arab Republic, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. This project will provide training and capacity development, leading to the development and sustainability of up-to-date national and regional food composition databases in EMR countries. The new robust data will underpin dietary monitoring and policy and wider nutritional research needs in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC).

Marisol has previously project managed several projects in the UK and Latin America: the MRC project Nutritools (www.nutritools.org); and Zn-Net funded by the European Cooperation in

Science and Technology (COST), previous to that being a researcher in the European micronutrient recommendations aligned (EURRECA) Framework Programme 7 (EU).

Daniela Segovia Lizano MSc, joins us as a Senior Researcher working on the EIT Food project “Quality Information Services and Dietary Advice for Personalized Nutrition in Europe”. Food Databanks lead this project working with colleagues from PepsiCo, die Technische Universität München and The University of Reading, working to deliver a digital platform as a supporting basis for creating and delivering personalised nutrition services.

After the conclusion of her bachelor studies in Human Nutrition at the University of Costa Rica, Daniela worked for several years as a dietitian and as an operator and innovation manager for an investment group in Costa Rica. She recently completed her masters in Nutrition and Health on the subject of molecular nutrition and toxicology at Wageningen University.