Spotlight on Yunbing Tan, 2021 AOCS Honored Student

The Honored Student Award, Sponsored by the AOCS Foundation, encourages and recognizes graduate students doing excellent research. This spotlight will introduce you to Yunbing Tan, Graduate Student University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, one of the 2021 Honored Students.  

Yunbing Tan is currently a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Food Biopolymers and Colloids laboratory at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has a strong academic background in food science with competitive GPAs in both Bachelor's (3.82/4.00) and Master's (3.67/4.00) degrees. Previously, she has done research in several distinctive areas, including evaluation and characterization of emulsion systems and their in- vitro digestion fate, protein hydrolysis and its application in dairy products functional foods. To date, she has published 22 scientific articles in well-respected journals with seven of them as the first author. Her work has been well recognized that she wa has beens honored with many scholarships and awards during her undergraduate and graduate studies. In the future, she would like to continue research on the application of the INFOGEST method to understand the gastrointestinal fate of various emulsions systems in regard of their lipid digestion properties as well as bioavailability of encapsulated components.

Can you tell us about current research?

I am investigating the factors impacting the bioaccessibility of oil-soluble vitamins with a focus on food matrix effects. There is still limited understanding of how food matrix effects impact lipid digestion and the gastrointestinal fate of nutraceuticals. The objective of my research is to systematically examine the impacts of the majoring factors influencing lipid digestion and nutraceutical bioaccessibility using food emulsions as model foods with well-defined properties. Bioaccessibility is a critical indicator for the overall bioavailability of hydrophobic nutraceuticals, which refers to the fraction of nutraceuticals that is released from the oil droplets and is in a form available for absorption by epithelium cells. In this work factors such as oil droplet concentration, oil droplet size, oil phase digestibility, triacylglycerol type, emulsifier type, calcium level and chitosan concentration were evaluated, and shown to influence the bioaccessibility of lipophilic nutraceuticals to different degrees.

What was your reaction when you learned you had won the award?

I am extremely glad that I get this honor from AOCS.  This honor works as great momentum for my future study.

How has AOCS helped develop your career?

The AOCS annual meeting attracts experts and companies focusing in oil and fat. It provides a valuable opportunity for us "oil scientists" to get in touch with each other and to get to know the innovative discovery in the field of oil released research.

Meet our honored student

Yunbing Tan will be presenting her paper on  the "Impact of Food Matrix Effects on Lipid Digestion and β-Carotene Bioaccessibility" at the 2021 AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo, May 3-14, 2021