On October 29, the School of Food and Biological Engineering hosted an academic lecture titled “Development of Food–Medicine Homology: Returning to Nature, Opportunities, Challenges, and Applications” in the Second Lecture Hall of the Conference Center. The keynote speaker was Professor Hesham R. El-Seedi from Uppsala University, Sweden, a renowned expert in natural product chemistry. The report was presided over by Professor Guo Zhiming from the School of Food and Biological Engineering. Nearly one hundred faculty members and graduate students attended the event.
Professor El-Seedi has extensive research experience in the synthesis, isolation, and structural identification of bioactive natural products, as well as their safety evaluation. He has worked at several prestigious institutions including Uppsala University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Stockholm University. He has published more than 400 scientific papers in top international journals such as The Lancet, Scientific Reports, Journal of Natural Products, and Food Chemistry. His main research interests include food–medicine homology, natural product analysis, and bioactive compound identification.
In his lecture, Professor El-Seedi emphasized the concept of “returning to nature” and highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in advancing the science of food–medicine homology. He discussed the health-promoting mechanisms of traditional functional food ingredients through modern techniques such as metabolomics and molecular biology, focusing on antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and gut microbiota regulation effects. He also pointed out that integrating green chemistry with artificial intelligence will be key to achieving sustainable innovation in the food and health industries.
The lecture offered inspiring insights and broadened the academic horizons of the participants, deepening their understanding of the scientific value and application potential of food–medicine homology, and further promoting international academic exchange within the School. (School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University)
