Amar Van Laar
PhD candidate Nutrition and Health
Amar van Laar performs molecular research related to nutrition and chronic diseases. His current research project involves research in the field of metabolic diseases like diabetes, related to dietary sugars.
Previously, he was involved in research on nutrients with anti-carcinogenic properties.
Amar obtained a bachelor degree in Biomedical Health Sciences at Maastricht University (2014) and a master degree in Molecular Nutrition & Toxicology at Wageningen University (2017).
He started his PhD at Ghent University (NutriFOODChem) in 2017.
His research on rare sugars is cell-based and involves the use of several human cell lines to model metabolic responses in humans. High-throughput assays for digestion and metabolic responses (eg insulin resistance and inflammation) are performed in singe and co-culture models.
Test compounds in his current and previous research projects are mostly nutraceuticals like rare glycobioses, beta-glucans and endocannabinoids.