Member profile

Professor Clare Mills

Last updated: 21 July 2021

Professor Mills is a Programme Grant leader.  Working with four other research leaders she developed a new programme of research relating food structure to health benefits of foods and in due course became a member of the IFR Executive Board. In 2011 Professor Mills moved to the University of Manchester to take up her current position. Based in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology and part of the Respiratory and Allergy Research team at the Wythenshawe Hospital she is now applying molecular science to understand, better diagnose and treat allergic and associated respiratory disease. She has led several international EU-funded projects in food allergy collectively worth around €23M. This included the EuroPrevall project 63 partners from 17 countries, including India, China, Russia and Ghana, spanning clinical science, epidemiology, social science, biochemical and immunological sciences, academia and industry. After moving to the University of Manchester she led the 38 partner, iFAAM project which sought to exploit much of the knowledge gained in EuroPrevall to develop tools and approaches to enable more effective management of food allergies.

Professor Mill’s research interest is focussed around the relationship between biophysical properties of proteins and their structural attributes within the context of behaviour during digestion in the gastrointestinal tract, and in particular with regards what makes some foods, like peanut, more allergenic than others, and why some food proteins become allergens.

Register of interests

In line with FSA policy and established good practice for accessing external expertise, Scientific Advisory Committee members are required to declare any personal or non-personal interests which represent a real or potential conflict in respect of general or specific aspects of work undertaken. Interests will be managed in accordance with the FSA’s policy and guidance. 

If members have interests not specified in these notes, but which they believe could be regarded as influencing their advice or other work for FSA, they should declare them. However, members are not under any obligation to search out interests of which they might reasonably not be aware. For example, either through being unaware of all the interests of family members, or of not being aware of links between one company and another. 

Current interests

Personal 

Category of Interest

Organisation / Body and Nature of Interest 

Direct employment

University of Manchester

React Biotech LTD (Director)

Other fee-paid work from relevant organisations, consultancies

React Biotech (Consultancy)

Shareholdings

React Biotech Ltd (Founder Shares)

Other personal interests

EFSA (Scientific Expert)

Anaphylaxis Campaign (Member of the Corporate Food Industry Panel)

Non-Personal

Category of Interest

Organisation / Body and Nature of Interest 

Indirect financial or non-financial support from relevant organisations

BBSRC (CASE Student Sponsored by Waters Corp)

European Food Safety Authority (with co-funding by FSA)-Member

PI on FSA funded Project FS101174

MRC (ICASE Student Sponsored by Water Corp)

Embassy of Saudi Arabia (PhD Student Funding)

LGC- Col of FS101206 with LGC

Historic

Personal

Category of Interest

Organisation / Body and Nature of Interest 

Membership, affiliation, trusteeships or decision-making position with relevant organisations

Solazyme (2014-2016)

Pepsico (Allergen Expert Advice) (2014-2016)

EFSA (Tender for Systematic Review for GMO Panel) (2014-2016)

TSB (Project with Water corp, LGC & Romer on Allergen Analysis) (2014-2016)

Non-Personal Interests

Category of Interest

Organisation / Body and Nature of Interest 

Indirect financial or non-financial support from relevant organisations

EU Funded Research (Chance and IFAAM Projects) (2014-2016)

BBSRC Grant Holder (2017-2018)

BBSRC (PhD Student Funding) (2017-2018)

Newton Fund (PhD Placement, Agricultural University of Beijing co-founded with  Chinese Scholarship Council)(2017-2018)

University of Nebraska Food Allergy Research and Resource Programme (PhD Studentship) (2014-2018)

Industry Funded Research Novartis DBV Technologies Ltd (2014-2018)

Research interests or funding which could benefit from work with FSA

BBSRC (Member of DRINC Steering Group) (2014-2016)

PI on FSA Funded Project T07062 (2014-2018)

CoI on FSA Funded Project Trace (2014-2018)

Other non-personal interests

Occasional External Reviewer