Gastrointestinal Physiology

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Michael Müller has a background in biochemistry and gene regulation. He is full professor and has the chair of Nutrition, Metabolism and Genomics in the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University/The Netherlands.

EDUCATION AND BACKGROUND:
He studied chemistry at the University of Freiburg/Germany and performed a PhD thesis in Biochemistry on 'Liver drug transporters'. After a 5-year period as post-doc at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg/Germany, he moved in 1993 to the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) to become head of the 'Liver transporter group', later in the position of associate professor.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
He is editorial board member of the European Journal of Nutrition, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics and World Journal of Gastroenterology. He is director of the Netherlands Nutrigenomics Consortium (NGI/TIFN) and board member of the Network of Excellence Nutrigenomics (European Community KP6).

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
We are fascinated by fat, in particular by fatty acids and their role as powerful signaling molecules. We use Affymetrix microarray analysis and molecular nutrition tools to characterize organ-specific fat-sensing mechanisms.

Our group studies the effects of fatty acids and other nutrients on gene expression and metabolic pathways with the focus on 4 major topics:
1. Molecular pathways involved in nutrient-dependent changes in gene expression
2. Impact of specific genes for energy metabolism
3. Bioavailability of nutrients and the role of transporter proteins
4. Gene expression signatures of health and stress (the 'two hits')