Name: Aedin Cassidy

Locations: UEA medical school, Norwich

What do you do?
At the moment I am continuing my work on dietary flavonoids with a focus on a class called anthocyanins that give berries their red/blue colour. We’re currently trying to see how important they are for preventing heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Over the last decade, I’ve been working with the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health on a series of research projects where we have identified a key role for higher intakes of flavonoids to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. They’ve powerful datasets to look at the associations between what we eat and health as they have been following up 100,000’s of health professionals since the 1970s/1980s, asking them about their diet and other health factors.

What can you see?
As I am on based in the medical school research building. I can see and hear the helicopter pad for the Norfolk and Norwich Teaching Hospital. It arrives most days which, when I first moved into the office, was a terrify noise but now I am used to it I hardly notice its take-off and landing.

When I’m not doing science I…
Like to cook and to travel. I go to the States 4-6 times a year with my work but avoid January-March as I can’t stand the snow and the wind chill in Boston! I also like to travel outside of work with my family.

If you’d like to find out more about Aedin’s research, and other cutting each research at UEA, check out their twitter feed:@UEAResearch