Martin Kussman

Martin Kussmann is Chief Scientific Officer at Diabetes Center Berne. The DCB works on improving diagnosis and treatment for people with diabetes by addressing unmet needs. From 2016-2018, Martin held a position as Full Professor of “Systems Biology in Nutrition and Health” at the Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, New Zealand. His team and program worked on infant micro- and mycobiome and health; maternal nutrition, breast milk and infant health; and nutritional effects on early-life epigenetics. Martin was furthermore the Scientific Director of New Zealand’s “National Science Challenge” on “High-Value Nutrition”. This 3rd largest NZ National Research Program encompasses infant, immune, metabolic and gut health targeting nutritional innovation for Asian consumers. In February 2011, Martin joined the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) on the campus of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, as Head of the “Molecular Biomarkers Core”, which he had built from scratch. This core facility and program covered five platforms and teams, i.e. proteomics, metabonomics, lipidomics, micronutrient analysis and diagnostics, with a strong focus on clinical applications in the context of healthy ageing with a focus on cognitive, metabolic and intestinal health. In June 2009, Martin was appointed Honorary Professor for Nutritional Science at the Faculty of Science, Aarhus University, Denmark. From June 2012 to September 2016, he was Lecturer (Maître d’Enseignement et Recherche, MER) at the Faculty of Life Sciences, EPFL. From March 2003 to January 2011, Martin was leading the Functional Genomics Group at the Nestlé Research Centre, Lausanne, and was responsible for nutrigenomics and nutri(epi)genetics.