Tate & Lyle Contributes £4.5 Million to Nutrition Research Centre

The new ‘Tate & Lyle Health Research Centre’ at King’s College London will include a clinical research facility (based at St. Thomas’) and a carbohydrate nutrition research laboratory (based at the Waterloo Campus).

07/09/06 Tate & Lyle has announced that it will contribute £4.5 million over a five-year period to King’s College London to set up a new centre for research into the link between nutrition and health. Collaboration between the company and the university dates back to the 1970s when research by scientists from King’s College London and Tate & Lyle led to the development of the no-calorie sweetener Splenda Sucralose.

The new ‘Tate & Lyle Health Research Centre’ at King’s College London will include a clinical research facility (based at St. Thomas’) and a carbohydrate nutrition research laboratory (based at the Waterloo Campus). The research will strengthen understanding of how carbohydrates can promote gut health and how different types of carbohydrate can reduce risk of metabolic syndrome (the group of disorders associated with heart disease and type II diabetes). Tate & Lyle’s investment will support new appointments within the Centre, such as a Tate & Lyle Professor of Nutrition and Health and a Reader in Endocrinology and Diabetes. The Centre will also draw upon the clinical expertise at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
 
King’s College London has a strong international reputation for its cross-disciplinary approach to nutrition and health, bringing together expertise in cardiovascular disease, gut health, reproductive health, molecular biology and nutrition. Current research includes the effect of low glycaemic carbohydrates on metabolic syndrome, the use of prebiotic carbohydrates to promote gut health, and the influence of diet and obesity during pregnancy on the risk of offspring developing high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome.
 
Tate & Lyle is currently developing ingredient solutions under its ENRICH™ service which enhance the nutritional benefit of food and beverages without compromising on taste. These solutions will address current health issues such as gut health (prebiotics and probiotics), satiety, paediatric health and vitamin and mineral enrichment.
 
Iain Ferguson, Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle said, “We are very proud to contribute to the development of this new research facility at King’s College London and to support new research appointments. By combining Tate & Lyle’s commercial experience in the food and beverage industry and King’s expertise in health and nutrition we can share knowledge through the dissemination of our research and ultimately bring new products and technologies to market. This partnership has particular relevance to the future development of our ENRICH service, which has been created in response to increasing consumer demand for great tasting, good value products that enhance healthy lifestyles.”
 
Professor Rick Trainor, Principal of King’s College London added, “King’s is delighted by the opportunities that this investment brings to improve the health and wellbeing of millions of people in this country and abroad. It also represents a significant alliance with a global business partner reinforcing King’s track record of forming strategic partnerships based on its research excellence. Research with Tate & Lyle during the seventies led to the development of sucralose. We have great hopes for future translational research from this Centre at King’s.”