Louise Goff
Professor of Nutrition Science
Biography
Louise completed her BSc (Hons) in Human Nutrition & Dietetics at Cardiff Metropolitan University and qualified as a Registered Dietitian in 1998; following this she completed a PhD in Nutrition and Biochemistry at Imperial College London in 2002, which is where her interest in the role of nutrition in type 2 diabetes began. Louise developed her independent academic career at King’s College London (2009 – 2023), leading an inter-disciplinary research programme focused on nutrition, ethnicity and cardiometabolic health. In 2023, Louise joined the Leicester Diabetes Research Centre as Professor of Nutrition Science.
Louise’s research programme is inter-disciplinary, working across translational and clinical research to study the role of nutrition in the development and management of type 2 diabetes, with a particular interest in minority ethnic groups. In her translational work, Louise has expertise in a wide range of sophisticated metabolic techniques such as stable isotopes, magnetic resonance imaging, and modelling of insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function to deep phenotype type 2 diabetes; her work in this field is internationally recognised, describing important ethnic distinctions in the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes in populations of African ancestry. Alongside this, Louise has extensive clinical research experience, particularly in the development and evaluation of nutrition-based education programmes to address ethnic inequities in healthcare, through co-design community engagement approaches and clinical trials.
Louise has attracted over £7.5M of research funding and been recognised through several prestigious awards including an NIHR Advanced Fellowship (2015-2019), a Diabetes Quality in Care award in 2019 for her ‘Healthy Eating & Active Lifestyles for Diabetes’ (HEAL-D) culturally tailored diabetes structured education programme, and the 2023 Diabetes UK Harry Keen Rank Nutrition Lecture award. Alongside her research, Louise is editor for Diabetic Medicine, Chair of the Diabetes UK Research Steering Group, co-editor of the Advanced Nutrition & Dietetics for Diabetes textbook, and a member of the Diabetes UK Nutrition Guidelines Committee, having led on the development of evidence-based guidelines for the nutritional management of diabetes in ethnic minority groups.
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Louise’s research interests focus on the role of nutrition in the development, prevention and management of type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases, particularly among minority ethnic groups.
Louise has expertise in nutritional assessment and measurement of dietary intake; dietary interventions; dietary/lifestyle management of type 2 diabetes; self-management; clinical nutrition; dietetic practice; carbohydrate metabolism; lipid metabolism; insulin sensitivity; beta-cell function; ectopic fat; co-production; behaviour change; community engagement; pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes; ethnic health and disease; health inequalities; patient and public involvement and engagement.
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Louise developed the ‘HEAL-D’ programme, a diabetes self-management education and support programme, in partnership with people living with type 2 diabetes of African and Caribbean heritage. Faith and community leaders and healthcare professionals worked together to create the programme. Find out more about HEAL-D.
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Louise co-leads the Diabetes Prevention module on the MSc Diabetes programme at the University of Leicester. She also lectures on nutrition across several of the other modules on the MSc Diabetes.
Louise also lectures on nutrition and diabetes as an invited/external lecturer at several UK universities, including Imperial College London, University of Surrey, and King’s College London.
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