Ellen Blaak PhD

Professor Ellen Blaak is Professor of Physiology of fat metabolism at the Department of Human Biology since 2007 and is Chair of the Department of Human Biology. Her research focuses on the role of disturbances in fatty acid metabolism and interorgan cross-talk (gut-adipose tissue-muscle metabolism) in the aetiology of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (>220 publ,) as well as the impact of nutritional or lifestyle intervention to reverse these changes.

Beside being professor at Maastricht University, she is project leader within the Top Institute Food and Nutrition, a public-private partnership of academia and international Food Industry, focussed on precompetitive research. She is member of the Nutrition committee of the Dutch Health Council and of several advisory board/grant evaluation committees. She is Secretary of the European Association for the Study of Obesity. She obtained funding from among others the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific research/Dutch Diabetes Research Foundation/EU as a PI for 25 research projects and has supervised more than 25 PhD theses.