Dr. Hettinga joined the IMGC Scientific Advisory Committee in 2015. He has participated in IMGC Symposia for more than a decade. Over the years, he has presented the outcomes of the research in his group at five different IMGC Symposia. He has started several projects through collaborations that started during IMGC Symposia, as witnessed by the several joint papers written with other IMGC delegates over the years. The objective of Dairy Science & Technology group, in which Dr. Hettinga is working, is to obtain new knowledge about the composition and quality of milk (products) throughout the dairy. Within this framework, he is responsible for the milk proteomics & infant health research. Since 2010, he has developed his own research line on this topic. His research focuses on product quality parameters that are relevant for infants from a nutritional & immunological point of view: “Exploring the effect of industrial processes on milk protein properties in relation to dairy product functionality”. When looking at the industrial processing of milk, there are three important aspects, that form the basis of my research 1) the effect of heating on damage and functionality of immune-active milk proteins, 2) the effect of heating on glycation & digestion of major milk proteins, and 3) the presence and functionality of peptides, either endogenously present in milk, or formed during digestion. This is a multidisciplinary research line, in which several groups of Wageningen University are brought together, with collaborators in e.g. biochemistry and immunology. Besides this research, Dr. Hettinga develops, and teaches in, multiple courses in the BSc and MSc program of Food Technology, with an emphasis on dairy science and food quality management. In addition, he has supervised more than a hundred BSc and MSc students during their thesis and internship. His bibliography is publicly available here.

Email: kasper.hettinga@wur.nl