the professional team

Our business-savvy scientists each have 20+ years of experience, graduate educations, and certifications that provide a solid foundation to support business goals. knowledge bank professionals have extensive experience speaking and writing to scientific and lay audiences.

Let our professional team create a special presentation for you. Contact us to receive an abstract of one of the following presentations:

	The Science Of Quality Botanicals
	Probiotics: Microcosm of Microbes
	Dietary Supplements: Label Claims Development & Support for Developers
	The Ultimate Supplement Challenge: Clinical Evaluations

Also, see our partial reasearch topic list below.

future speaking engagements

Southern California Institute of Food Technologists
September Meeting: 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005
Discovery Center, Santa Ana, California

TWISTING SCIENCE HEADLINES: Breakfast Cereals are Dietary Supplements in a Pool of Milk

Americans launch their morning with a daily dose of nutrition and health quips from their radio, newspaper, or TV. Mountainous reams of university or corporate press releases followed by quotes from nutrition experts fuel the news frenzy. Each sound bite jockeys to garner the top-of-the-hour niche. Debra Topham’s presentation on Wednesday, September 14, 2005 will demonstrate the ease of twisting nutrition or health headlines for public attention. Imagine tomorrow's lead: Breakfast cereals really are dietary supplements in a pool of milk!
Engaging the public’s attention long enough to hear fact-based and balanced health messages takes a masterful blend of art and science. Interestingly, the general masses have less understanding while food and medical expertise advances dramatically. Topham should know as a Knowledge Bank consultant to entrepreneurs and local university educator. She is a Certified Nutrition Specialist and 25 year veteran of the food and nutrition industry. Contact the SCIFTS office for reservations: (714) 282-0919 or email your request to SCIFTS@pacbell.net

Link: "TWISTING SCIENCE HEADLINES" Press Release (Adobe Acrobat PDF File)

National Institute of Food Technologists pre-meeting program
Evolving Product Development: Activities Beyond the Bench
July 11-12, 2004, Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel: Las Vegas, NV

Sunday July 11, 2004
Claims Development and Support: Putting “oomph” in product labels and advertising (Part 1) (FTC and FDA Regulations) (Debra Topham)

An emerging obligation of senior level food scientists is to develop
adequate support for labeling and advertising claims to support product
sales and positioning. This section will review the pertinent FDA and FTC
regulations. The FTC guidance document for adequate advertising
substantiation will be utilized to project hypothetical scenarios, including
weight-loss products.

Monday July 12, 2004
Look Who’s Talking: Communication Strategies for Food Techies (Debra Topham and Catherine Yonker)

Food scientists live and breathe a vocabulary specific to their development
efforts. This often leaves communication gaps with other corporate team
members. This session presents strategies for fostering technology-marketing
communication and fostering understanding of product development acronyms
for shelf-life testing, home-use tests, sensory programs, and the ever
notable PD timeline.

Link: http://www.am-fe.ift.org/cms/?pid=1000083

leadership

Debra K.W. Topham, MS, CNS

As director of knowledge bank, Debra Topham's role is to build successful bridges between those that speak "technology" and those that don't. Ms. Topham contributes to the documentation of product usage and efficacy; label claims and promotional platforms; sensory evaluation; and bench-marking of competitive products. She reviews scientific and medical literature on functional foods, excipients, botanicals, and health-related issues to provide clients an enhanced foundation for substantiated consumer-friendly communications. Her clear communication style comes from Ms. Topham's well-seasoned university lecturing and speaking events. Ms. Topham has presented to the White House Subcommittee's Commission on Dietary Supplement Labeling and to the Food & Nutrition Board's Panel on Dietary Antioxidants.

Ms. Topham serves as project manager for human clinical research studies, scientific symposia, and nutrition conferences, especially on botanicals, plant concentrates, and human nutrition. Ms. Topham participates in more than 20 human clinical trials at multiple sites in 5 countries of the world. The Botanical Education Workshops, the Photochemical Conference: Today's Knowledge--Tomorrow's Products, and the Nagano (Japan) Scientific Symposium on Sports Science are representative of the technical conferences Ms. Topham coordinates. Among her many publications, she edited two internationally known books, Phytochemicals: A New Health Paradigm and Phytochemicals as Bioactive Agents by Technomic Publishing Inc. (now CRC Press).

knowledge bank's director is a classically trained food and nutrition professional with the solid experience of a corporate research scientist and home economist. Ms. Topham was granted the Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) title for her advanced degrees and significant contributions to the fields of food and nutrition. She is a professional member of the Institute of Food Technologists and Phi Upsilon Omicron.

Mary Jacob, PhD, RD

Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Mary M. Jacob, R.D., contributes 40 years of research wisdom and experience to knowledge bank. Her work on the effects of race and climate on basal metabolism, mineral metabolism, and body composition changes in health and disease spans several continents. Her professional development and education crosses India, England, Australia and the United States.

Dr. Jacob has focused technical investigations into protein/amino acid metabolism and nutritional status assessment in pregnancy and malnourished children. Intensive research and education allows knowledge bank's Dr. Jacob to translate and adapt medical jargon for successful audience comprehension. She interprets the benefits and limitations of dietary supplements and their components into rational explanations for industry customers and consumer groups.

As a frequent presenter at the International Congress of Nutrition, the American Pediatric Society and the Annual Experimental Biology meetings, Dr. Jacob discusses her research findings on body composition changes in aging and disease as well as the implications of trace mineral alterations in animal tissues for human nutrition. These are published as peer reviewed articles in professional journals. She is a professional member of American Society of Nutritional Science, American College of Nutrition, American Dietetic Association, Gerontological Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and The New York Academy of Sciences. Dr. Jacob is a mentor to health researchers and dietitians alike and contributes to the local American Heart Association chapter as a professional advisor.

BIOGRAPHIES

the professional team

future speaking engagements

leadership

Debra K.W. Topham, MS, CNS

Mary Jacob, PhD, RD

enterprising solutions: clinical research services

partial research topic list