Mohammed Hefni

I am a researcher in food science at the Department of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences. My research focuses on methyl donors in foods - analytical methods, stability during food processing, and health aspects.

Teaching

I am teaching both under- and postgraduate students in the field of food science and nutrition. I have personal experience in teaching the following courses, Food Analysis, Food Chemistry, Food Technology and Basics of Human Nutrition at Mansoura University, Egypt.

Research

I am interested in developing analytical methods for the determination of vitamins with emphasis on folate and other nutrients such as betaine and choline in foods. A complement to my research on methyl donors is to study the effects of food processing and bioprocessing on retention and/or stability of several vitamins with the aim of producing foods with increased nutritional value and evaluating the health effects of these foods. My special research focus is on the biochemical pathways of one-carbon metabolism. The term one-carbon metabolism refers to a network of several interrelated reactions that use different methyl donors to activate single carbons. In this respect, I am interested in evaluating the role of different methyl donors e.g., folate (both synthetic supplement and natural forms), choline and its oxidation product betaine in modulating the key metabolic pathways in one-carbon metabolism using advanced analytical techniques e.g., NMR and LCMSMS metabolomics approach.
I have established international collaboration with Assoc Prof Ali Moazzami, scientific manger of the metabolomics unit at Uppsala Biocenter, SLU, and the osmolyte research group (Prof Michael Lever and Prof Sandy Slow) at Canterbury Health Laboratories, Biochemistry unit, Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Institute of Food Research IFR, in Norwich, UK.

Commissions

Member of Scientific Committee of the Faculty of Agriculture Central Laboratory, Mansoura University.