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Affiliations

Main affiliation

-Profesor Titular, Institute of Sustainable Processes (ISP) and Department of Agricultural Engineering, Food Technology Division, University of Valladolid

Other affiliations

-Associate Professor, Department of Food Science, Aarhus University, Denmark.

-Adjunct Professor, Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, Purdue University, USA.

-Editor, International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.

Profile

I am an Associate Professor at the Institute of Sustainable Processes and the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Valladolid (UVa). Before joining UVa, I worked at the University of Guelph (Canada) and Aarhus University (Denmark). My primary expertise lies in addressing challenges in plant food research, digestive health, food structuring, precision nutrition, and molecular technology by applying principles from colloid, soft matter, and polymer science, as well as multi-omics approaches. This work naturally extends to the development of advanced in vitro models to study metabolic profiles and interactions among components.

Below, I present two examples of critical insights gained from research on cell walls and starch.

Metabolic, prebiotic, and exposomic implications of polyphenol-functionalized plant cell walls: For example, we recently developed a selective detoxification method to interface simulated bolus and chyme with enteroendocrine cells. Using this approach, we discovered for the first time the potential of apple pomace for GLP-1–mediated appetite suppression and identified the components responsible for this secretagogue activity (Lopez-Rodulfo, et al. 2026). We also provided the first evidence that phenolics non-covalently bound to plant cell walls can, in some individuals, promote the growth of specific taxa of colonic bacteria to a greater extent than the cell walls themselves (Bechtner, et al. 2025). It is notewhorthy our work on the development of an in vitro bioaccessibility pipeline that couples the INFOGEST 2.0 protocol with a physical simulation of transepithelial transport and high-resolution mass spectrometry. This framework was further extended with additional variants developed in our group, including (i) a mucosal digestion step through the incorporation of rat intestinal extract (Gallego-Lobillo, et al. 2025), and (ii) a dynamic gastric phase that accounts for gastric emptying, as well as transient pH changes and gastric secretions (Lopez-Rodulfo, Stentoft, et. al. 2025). This food structure models and in vitro pipelines allowed us to report, for the first time, a previously unrecognized esterase activity of pancreatic lipase toward hydroxycinnamic acids esterified to glucose via a carboxyl ester bond, representing the first phenolic-specific enzymatic activity described in the human intestinal lumen in vitro (Lopez-Rodulfo, Gallego-Lobillo, et al. 2025).

Despite the aforementioned health-promoting potential of fruit and vegetable pomaces, their consumption remains low. This is concerning, as it limits the cumulative internal exposure required for cardiometabolic protection and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory signalling. A promising strategy is the incorporation of unrefined pomaces into stable food matrices, such as bread. However, like many insoluble fibres, pomace exhibits a high water-binding capacity, leading to competition for moisture with gluten and starch, often resulting in insufficient hydration of these key structuring components. Inspired by the unique hydrocolloid properties of soluble polysaccharides such as psyllium arabinoxylans reported in our previous work (Franco, Spotti, et. al., 2024), our research explored how these “supportive” fibres could counteract the adverse water dynamics induced by pomace (Franco, et al. 2026). Specifically, we found that the addition of psyllium husk enabled higher hydration, particularly in the form of intergranular water (i.e., water located outside starch granules). Importantly, psyllium did not sequester plasticising water from starch or gluten during storage, resulting in a significant anti-staling effect and a twofold increase in dough elasticity. Whereas the addition of pomace alone led to reduced loaf volume and a twofold increase in crumb hardness compared to standard wheat bread, co-formulation with psyllium or pectin restored water distribution and mitigated bread staling. In conclusion, we demonstrate that simple blending, when properly engineered based on soft matter physics principles, enables baked goods to serve as effective vehicles for enhancing habitual dietary exposure to bioactive compounds from pomace.

Some achievements and recognitions: Since establishing my first research team, I am am invited to deliver, on average, more than five keynote lectures per year. My work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Nils Foss Talent Prize 2021 (Foss Analytics, Denmark, awarded to the leading researcher worldwide for contributions to the application of analytical technology), the Young Scientist Research Award (Cereals & Grains Association, USA, which recognizes the best cereal scientist in the world under the age of 40), the Ontario Excellent Researcher Award (Government of Ontario, Canada, concession of 111k €) and the DFF-Sapere Aude excellence grant (Denmark, with funding of 833k €). I have secured €8 million in research funding as principal investigator or project coordinator and have authored more than 130+ scientific publications (h-index: 47), most of them published in top 10 % journals D1. I was ranked among the top 2% most cited researchers worldwide in 2025, according to the ranking published by Stanford University, placing 4^th at the University of Valladolid. My research has been presented more than 150 times in scientific conferences, 50+ of which as keynote/plenary speaker, and highlighted multiple times by press media from different countries. Besides my main affiliation as Profesor Titular at University of Valladolid, I am adjunct Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Adjunct Associate Professor at the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research (Purdue University, USA), and Editor of International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.

Training and mentoring: I have been the main supervisor of 14 Postdocs, 11 PhD students and 18 MSc students. I have been the host supervisor of >50 visiting scholars (erasmus+) and external researchers.

Research lines

- Increase the precision in understanding the relationships between food structure, metabolic response, and the gut microbiome.

- Structure-function relationships in relation to building novel foods and food packaging materials.

- Analytical methods to elucidate structural features of polysaccharides, including monomer composition, linkage patterns, sequencing, hydrodynamic and molecular weight, anomeric configuration and chain length distributions.

- Chemical, enzymatic and physical modifications of plant polysaccharides and proteins.

- Interactions between food macromolecules and small metabolites (e.g., polyphenols) in complex systems.

- Health aspects, particularly the digestion and bioaccesibility of plant biopolymers and phenolic compounds and the role of polysaccharides as dietary fiber.

- Physical properties, including the rheological and colloidal properties of edible systems.

- The encapsulation and controlled release of active compounds for inclusion in food formulations.

- The film forming properties of plant polysaccharides and proteins with application in edible films, coatings and active packaging.