Professor Graham C Burdge BSc, PhD, Registered Nutritionist

Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry

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Professor Graham Burdge is Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry within Medicine at the University of Southampton.

The aim of my work is to identify novel targets for nutritional and pharmaceutical interventions to improve health and ameliorate disease. My work also aims to identify novel sustainable, scalable and ecologically sound sources of key nutrients.

Professor Burdge graduated in Cell and Immunobiology from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1985 and was awarded a PhD from the Department of Medical Oncology, University of Southampton in 1990. His postdoctoral work focused on phospholipid and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) metabolism. He was the first to show that men and women, and males and females of other species, differ in the ability to synthesise PUFA, and that this contributes to a difference in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) status between sexes. Together with his long-term collaborator Prof Karen Lillycrop (Professor of Epigenetics, University of Southampton), he showed for the first time that maternal diet during gestation can alter the phenotype of the offspring by changing the epigenetic regulation of specific genes thus providing a plausible mechanism to explain the early life origin of disease paradigm. 

Prof Burdge’s work is focussed on how PUFA biosynthesis regulates T lymphocyte function and on evaluating a novel seed oil from a transgenic strain of Camelia sativa that contains the omega-3 PUFA found in oily fish and fish oil as a potential alternative source of these fatty acids in the human diet. His work is funded by UK Research Councils, the European Commission, the Research Council of Norway and by industrial partners. 

Prof Burdge is co-author of a book “Nutrition, epigenetics and Health” and author of “Polyunsaturated Fatty acid metabolism”. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Nutrition (2013 – 2018, the Journal of Nutritional Science (2013 – 2017), and of Nutrition Research Reviews (2010 -2013).  He currently Editor-in-Chief of Lipids. He has been a member of the BBSRC grant Panel A and is an ad hoc member of other BBSRC grant panels. He reviews widely for academic journals and for grant awarding organisations. 

Qualifications

• BSc, Cell and Immunobiology, The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth 1985
• PhD, University of Southampton, 1990
• Registered Nutritionist

Appointments held 

• 01/04/2009 – 31/07/2015 Reader/Associate Professor of Human Nutrition, University of Southampton
• 01/04/2007 -31/03/2009 Lecturer in Human Nutrition, University of Southampton
• 01/01/2006 -31/12/2008 British Heart Foundation Research Fellow, University of Southampton
• 01/11/2003 - 31/12/2005 Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton
• 12/10/1998 - 31/10/2003 Research Fellow, University of Southampton
• 03/11/1997- 09/10/1998 Scientific Officer, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Surrey
• 17/2/1995 – 31/8/1997 Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton
• 13/11/1989-16/02/1995 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Southampton
• 14/02/1989-10/11/1989 Basic Grade Microbiologist, PHLS CAMR, Porton Down, Wiltshire