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CoDiet Consortium meet in Thessaloniki, Greece for 3rd Annual Meeting

From the 3rd to the 5th of February, the CoDiet consortium was hosted in Thessaloniki, Greece, by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for the project’s third annual meeting. CoDiet began in 2023 and is an international project that aims to combat diet-related diseases through innovative monitoring technologies and personalised nutrition.

The meeting began on the 3rd of February, with work package (WP) leads meeting for a steering committee meeting, which included hearing feedback from the External Advisory Board. The WP leads also had the opportunity to get a tour of the BIOMIC_AUTh laboratory facilities by Prof Georgios Theodoridis.

Members of the CoDiet consortium having a tour of the BIOMIC_AUTh laboratory

The meeting was followed by a public event, ‘Future Foods: Exploring the technologies powering the CoDiet clinical trial’, which invited members of the public to learn more about how cutting-edge technologies and personalised nutrition are transforming the way we understand the connections between diet and disease.

The panel was moderated by CoDiet Communications Manager, Ms Alexandra Rayner, and was joined by Dr Georgios Theodoridis, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ms Danai Rossiou, Junior Researcher, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dr Adrian Rubio-Solis, Research Associate in Sensing and Machine Learning, Imperial College London and Ms Inés Barretxeguren Larrea, Member of the Scientific and Training Team, Microcaya.

Members of the public were invited to view the newest version of the camera being used in the CoDiet clinical trial, as well as have their body composition measured by non-invasive tools supplied by Microcaya, which are also being used in the project.

Members of the public at the ‘Future Food: Technologies powering the CoDiet clinical trial’ panel event

The first official day of the meeting on the 4th February, featured a series of presentations showcasing progress from the past 12 months across the CoDiet work packages, beginning with WP1 on corpus generation and annotation for technology-assisted literature triage, presented by Joram Posma, Antoine Lain, Yajie Gu and Tim Beck. This was followed by WP2: Biomarkers Plus, led by Sara Arranz, Aygul Dagbasi, and Adrian Rubio, which focused on advances in biomarker research. After a short break, WP3 explored the structure of the data, with insights from Dimitrios Gunopulos and Jakub Marecek, before WP4 delved into causally informed machine-learning models and personalised recommendations, presented by Mark Kozdoba. The morning concluded with WP5, where Gary Frost and Monica Hill discussed the evaluation of the AI-derived CoDiet NCD tool, followed by a well-deserved lunch and opportunity to catch up with one another.

The afternoon was not short of activity, with Prof Franco Sassi leading the consortium in an interactive session to discuss policy models, and Dr Mark Kozdova following suit, leading an interactive session on the recommender/education system being developed within the project.

Members of the CoDiet consortium at the 3rd Annual Meeting

After a productive first day, the consortium made its way to MPAKAL Urban Tavern for a delicious and satisfying Greek dinner, where lively conversation and a chance to unwind were gladly welcomed by all in attendance.

Due to a last-minute change of the agenda, the consortium was treated to a bit of a later start on day 2 of the meeting. The day kicked off at 9am with presentations from WP8: Communication, dissemination & exploitation, led by Alexandra Rayner and Ivana Balkan, followed by WP7: Coordination and ethics, led by Itziar Tueros and Amaia Barrena, who gave updates from the past 12 months and some direction for what can be expected in the coming year.

The consortium heard from the CoDiet Project Officer, Serena Batagglia, who dialled into the meeting to share some encouraging words and praise the team on the efforts that have been made so far.

The afternoon was far from boring, with CoDiet Exploitation Manager, Ms Ivana Balkan, leading the consortium in an engaging session titled, ‘Fund it or Forget it!’. The purpose of the activity was to serve as a reminder of the necessity of exploiting results from the project, and the financial consequences that occur by not prioritising this area of the project.

Members of the CoDiet consortium take part in the ‘Fund it or Forget it’ exploitation activity

It was a wonderful week where many important and fruitful conversations were had. There is much to do in the next 12 months, but the consortium left the annual meeting feeling energised, inspired and ready for what’s coming next!