PhD degree for Lisa Wanders

On the 12th of December, Lisa Wanders defended her PhD thesis entitled “The importance of lifestyle for health and disease – a focus on sedentary behavior, physical (in)activity and diet”. Several experts in the field (including a very familiar face) were invited to challenge the findings of her thesis and discuss some additional perspectives. Like the figures on her cover, Lisa calmly juggled around all questions that were thrown at her and came up with some clever responses.

Lisa’s work presented some novel insights for the rising field of personalized nutrition, by addressing the importance of physical (in)activity in conjunction with nutrition. For example, Lisa examined whether meal composition and sitting breaks interact to regulate postprandial metabolic heath and cognitive function. Moreover, she investigated whether a more personalized diet, based on the location of insulin resistance (muscle vs. liver) could optimize vascular function, glucose homeostasis and cardiovascular risk. With this research, Lisa has broadened the knowledge in her field and attributed to our common goal of personalized medicine.

Afterwards, the new title was celebrated at Café the Shuffle with family, friends, colleagues, a few drinks and even a swinging salsa workshop. We are positive that the introduction of these salsa moves will help our future candidates to dance around the defense-questions with as much grace and calmness as Lisa herself.