About
Research
Email: leta.pilic@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4359
Biography
Leta completed a degree in Nutrition Science at the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, followed by a Master's degree in Public Health at the Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, Medical School, Croatia.
After obtaining her master's degree and working in pharmaceutical industry for two years, Leta moved to the UK and completed a PhD in Nutrition and Genetics at St Mary’s University. She is currently a lecturer on BSc and MSc programmes in Nutrition. Leta is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition.
Research
Areas of research supervision
- Nutrition and genetics/personalised nutrition
- Genetics and sports performance
- Nutrition, physical activity and chronic disease
Research profile
Leta's PhD explored the effects of genetics on blood pressure response to salt. As member of the Nutrition and Genetics research group at St Mary’s Leta is currently exploring the associations between genetics, taste perception and dietary intake.
She is supervising number of MSc research projects in the area of nutrigenetics and personalised nutrition and is also a research supervisor on several PhD projects (Alexandra King: “The effect of genotype and diet on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors”, Angeliki Kapellou: “The Influence of Common Genetic Variations on the Acute and Long-Term Effects of Caffeine on Cognitive Performance”)
Publications
Please refer to Leta's Google Scholar profile for publications.
Conference communications and published abstracts
- Cogbill S., Panayiotis, L., Pilic, L., Mavrommatis, Y. (2019). Does genotype-based dietary advice elicit a change in dietary intake? Focus on hypertension and salt intake. Oral presentation at the Nutrition Society Spring Conference “Inter-individual differences in the nutrition response: from research to recommendations”, April 1-2, 2019, Dundee, UK.
- King, A., Pilic, L., Graham, CAM., Mavrommatis, Y. (2018). The effect of ApoE genotype, MTHFR genotype and dietary intake on intermediate cardiovascular disease risk factors. Does personalised nutrition advice based on ApoE and MTHFR genotype affect dietary behaviour? Poster presentation at the European Nutrigenomics Organisation week, September 3-6, 2018, Newcastle, UK.
- Pilic, L., Mavrommatis, Y. (2017). Salt sensitivity: genetic and physiological markers and its effects on salt taste perception and intake. Oral presentation at the European Nutrigenomics Organisation week, August 28-31, 2017, Varna, Bulgaria.
- Graham, CAM., Pilic, L., Mavrommatis, Y. (2017). The effects of genetic profiling on eating behaviour. Oral presentation at the Nutrition Society Summer Conference-Improving Nutrition in Metropolitan Areas, July 10-12, 2017, London, UK.
- Pilic, L., Mavrommatis, Y. (2016). Genetic predisposition to salt sensitivity and its effects on dietary salt perception and intake. Poster presentation at the Nutrition Society Summer Conference-New Technology in Nutrition Research and Practice, July 11-14, 2016, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
Recent presentations
- Mega Evento Nutrition, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Represented the UK Nutrition Society with the talk “Nutrition and Genes: Personalised nutrition for optimal health”, August 2018
- International Health Week, University of Navarra, Spain. Talk: “The role of nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics in prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease”, February 2018