MRC Epidemiology UnitResearch Associate
Nutritional Epidemiology
Left the Unit in August 2018
Work and interests
Ju-Sheng was a Research Associate within the Nutritional Epidemiology programme. He was also a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow supported by the European Commission (2016-2018). Ju-Sheng left the unit in August 2018.
The major interests of his current research are 1) genetic and dietary determinants of nutritional biomarkers, such as plasma fatty acids, circulating 25(OH)D, vitamin C and carotinoids; and the associations of the nutritional biomarkers with metabolic markers and type 2 diabetes. 2) prenatal risk factors and early infant feeding practice with growth pattern and adiposity in Chinese children.
Background and experience
Ju-Sheng completed his PhD degree in nutrition at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China). Within his PhD programme, he received one year’s training in the Nutrition and Genomics Lab at Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in the USA, where he worked on the project of gene-nutrient interaction on diabetes traits.
Publications
Selected publications
- Zheng JS, et al. Association between plasma phospholipid saturated fatty acids and metabolic markers of lipid, hepatic, inflammation and glycaemic pathways in eight European countries: a cross-sectional analysis in the EPIC-InterAct study. BMC Medicine 2017, 15(1):203.
- Zheng JS, et al. Maternal blood pressure rise during pregnancy and offspring obesity risk at 4-7 years old: the Jiaxing Birth Cohort. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2017, 102(11):4315-22.
- Zheng JS, et al. Circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D, IRS1 variant rs2943641 and insulin resistance: replication of a gene-nutrient interaction in four populations of different ancestries. Clinical Chemistry 2014, 60(1):186-96.
- Zheng JS, et al. Modulation by dietary fat and carbohydrate of IRS1 association with type 2 diabetes traits in two populations of different ancestries. Diabetes Care 2013, 36(9):2621-7.
- Zheng JS, et al. Intake of fish and marine n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and risk of breast cancer: meta-analysis of data from 21 independent prospective cohort studies. British Medical Journal 2013, 346:f3706
Selected awards:
- DSM Science & Technology Award Asia 2015
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship 2016-2018
Links
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship
Nutritional biomarkers to advance understanding of association between diet and type 2 diabetes
Acronym: NUTBIO-DIAB
Researchers: Ju-Sheng Zheng, Nita Forouhi (supervisor)
There is an unabated rise in the burden of type 2 diabetes, a chronic long-term condition. The health consequences of type 2 diabetes include premature illness and shortened life-expectancy, which lead to social and financial cost to individuals, heath services and society.
There is an urgent need to identify modifiable factors that can prevent type 2 diabetes. Diet and nutrition are crucial for the prevention of type 2 diabetes, but progress in establishing a scientific evidence base for dietary factors linked with diabetes has often been limited by measurement error in self-reported dietary assessment. Compared to the self-reported data that is traditionally used for dietary assessment, blood measures that reflect dietary intake (nutritional biomarkers) can provide an objective measurement of nutritional status and dietary intake. This can usefully supplement the information from self-reported diet.
Within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual fellowship, Ju-Sheng will be working at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge on the unprecedented resource of nutritional biomarkers that has been generated within the framework of the EU FP6 funded EPIC-InterAct study across 8 European countries. This project will enable a greater understanding of the link between dietary factors and the development of type 2 diabetes across European populations.