Claus T. Christophersen

Claus is a Lecturer in Nutrition in the School of Medical & Health Sciences. He is also Post-Graduate Coordinator for Public Heath, Occupational Health & Safety and Allied Health (Paramedical, Occupational Therapies, Nutrition & Dietetics, Speech Pathology).

Dr Christophersen has a MSc from the University of Copenhagen (2003) and a PhD from the University of Western Australia (2008). He undertook a Post-Doctoral appointment at the CSIRO Preventative Health Flagship (Adelaide) before becoming a research scientist in CSIRO Food & Nutrition. He returned to Perth in September 2015 to take up a lecturing/research position in the School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University.

Dr Christophersen is a microbiologist specialising in the role of the gut microbiome in health and disease. As team leader at CSIRO Dr Christophersen led the molecular gut microbiology capability, which he developed over recent years to close the gap and further the understanding of the complex interaction between the gut microbiome, diet and/or disease, and the host response. To accomplish this he utilizes in vitro and animal models and human intervention studies, and an integration of bacterial 16S rRNA sequencing, biochemical and physiological data using multivariate statistical analysis. Dr Christophersen has published in highly esteemed journals (e.g. GUT) in many areas of gut microbiome research, i.e. obesity, effects of high protein diet, ulcerative colitis (UC), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Gut-Brain Axis (Autism), athletes and other healthy cohorts. Through these studies he has an in-depth knowledge of microbial changes and the resulting changes of the gut environment and microbial fermentation following diet changes, diet supplementation or disease.