Research Associate in Nutritional Epidemiology at King’s College London

This project needs a motivated, ambitious researcher to work on an exciting body of research to study the inter-relationships between diet, lifestyle and menopause (funded by the British Menopuase Society). You will be joining the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London, working in collaboration with ZOE Ltd.  You will first analyse data collected from the ZOE PREDICT cohorts (n=100,000) and ZOE Health Studies (n~450,000) to answer research questions relating to diet and menopause. You will also build on this first phase of data analysis research to design and implement a remote app-based diet-lifestyle-symptom trial.  Strong quantitative research skills and experience in statistical analysis of large datasets will be essential. You will need good communication skills and a drive to apply your knowledge and skills to nutrition and health research.  You will have a PhD in nutrition, medical or bioinformatics, epidemiology, public health or data sciences, ideally with a focus on utilising large health datasets and / or nutrition.

The menopausal transition is associated with higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk factors, as well as symptoms including alterations in mood, sleep, diet and other lifestyle factors. However, whether the reported changes associated with menopause are due to hormonal alterations, psychological changes associated with the transition, natural aging, social and behavioural factors of midlife, genetic vulnerability or poor diet has been understudied and warrants further exploration. The ZOE studies, including the ZOE PREDICT cohorts and the ZOE Health Study, provide a unique opportunity to study menopause in association with diet and lifestyle factors at an unprecedented depth, breadth and scale.

This project will consist of 2 phases:

1. You will first analyse data from the ZOE studies to determine the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and identify key determinants associated with symptom prevalence and severity. Using the high-resolution dietary data you will explore the relationship between dietary patterns, diet quality, foods, nutrients and diet habits on menopause.
2. You will then design and implement in-app research using the ZOE app platform, informed from the key findings of the data mining phase. You will implement a remote trial implementing key dietary or lifestyle modifications and assess their potential to reduce menopause symptoms to explore causality of observational findings.

King’s College London, Waterloo Campus is based in the heart of London. The Department of Nutritional Sciences in the School of Life Course & Population Sciences has a team of world-leading basic, applied and public health scientists. In REF 2021, the School achieved a 70% 4* rating for research, 100% 4* rating for environment, 87% 4* rating for impact, and ranked 1st in the UK for research for Unit of Assessment 3.

This project will be in collaboration with ZOE Ltd, which is a multidisciplinary start-up composed of world-leading scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, product managers and designers, paving the way for personalised nutrition research. In collaboration with academic institutions, teaching hospitals and tech partners, ZOE have run the world’s largest personalised nutrition studies (the PREDICT Program).

You are welcome to contact Dr Sarah Berry (sarah.e.berry@kcl.ac.uk) if you would like any further information or to discuss the post.