Christiane Schmidmeier

Citation

Thesis Title
Adherence interactions between milk proteins and human intestinal surface layer components

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Fortifying food with nutrients and bioactive compounds, such as proteins or probiotics, is becoming increasingly popular among food manufacturers. To ensure consumers receive all the benefits from these added bioactive compounds, protection is required from premature degradation during the digestion process. This can be achieved by packing compounds into delivery systems, which only open at a specific site in the small intestine. Ms Schmidmeier's research identified several milk proteins that adhere to the intestinal wall and can be used to coat the delivery vehicles to enhance their residence time at their site of absorption. She also developed models of three different intestinal layers (epithelial cells, mucin and bacteria) and characterised adhesion characteristics of milk proteins to these layers. Her research can be used in the future to design new bioactive delivery systems with enhanced absorption of bioactive compounds.

Supervisors
Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh
Dr Nicole Roy