Editor Profiles

Maria is an Editor for the BMC Series, and has been the Editor of BMC Nutrition since October 2017.

As an undergraduate student, Maria studied Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. She moved on to completed an MSc in Molecular Medicine at the University of East Anglia, UK, where she stayed to obtain a PhD in Biomolecular Science. During her PhD studies, Maria investigated the structural and biochemical properties of periplasmic chaperones in Salmonella in response to envelope stress. It was then that Maria learned she had a greater interest in scientific writing and science communication than in the laboratory practices, and so following the completion of her PhD she joined the Editorial team of the BMC Series in October 2017.  

Ana is Manuscript Editor for the BMC Series, and has been with BMC Nutrition since March 2019.  Prior to joining BioMed Central, Ana was a post-doctoral researcher at the University College Cork and the National Suicide Research Foundation developing a program to improve the mental health services and reduce the number of suicides in Ireland. Ana started her career in science investigating the psycho-pharmacological effects of plant extracts on animal models of anxiety and depression. She completed her PhD in Pharmacology with emphasis in Neuroscience at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, investigating the effects of muscarinic receptor activation on adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Previously she worked as lecturer of Neuroscience, Psycho-pharmacology and Behavioural genetics to Psychology students in Brazil.

Doris has been a Manuscript Editor for BMC Nutrition since March 2019. 

After obtaining a Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Rome ”La Sapienza” in 2010, Doris joined the Department of Craniofacial Development and Stem Cell Biology at King’s College London and became enthusiastic about regenerative dentistry.  She completed a PhD focusing on salivary gland hypoplasia in Gas1 mutant mice looking at the neuro-epithelial interactions during salivary gland development and regeneration.

She is delighted to be working on BMC Nutrition and promoting open access.

Life Stage Nutrition

Dr. Maria Lorella Gianni earned her Medical Degree in 1993 and completed her residency training in Pediatrics in 1998 at the University of Milan, San Paolo Hospital, where she began working on inborn errors of metabolism and infant nutrition and later health. Since 2002, she has been working as an Assistant Professor at Fondazione IRCCS “Cà Granda” Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, Italy. She is involved in  monitoring health, nutritional status and neurodevelopment outcome of premature infants and in developing follow-up program methodologies. From the launch of BMC Nutrition in 2015 she joined the Editorial Board of the journal as Section Editor of the Life Stage nutrition section.

Basic Science

Denis Roy is Full Professor with the Department of Food Sciences of the Université Laval (Quebec, Canada).  He is an expert in the field of probiotics and prebiotics and former Tier I holder of the Canada Research Chair in Lactic Culture Biotechnology for Dairy and Probiotic Industries (2003-2017). His research interests focuses on functional food- and colon-related microbial cultures, with attention to their functioning, properties, and potential health benefits. Molecular approaches such as metagenomics and metatranscriptomics are applied to define the diversity and to measure the gene expression of microbial communities found in the intestinal tract of animal and human or in food systems. He joined the Editorial Board (Basic Sciences) of BMC Nutrition in 2014.