Rate My Professor Jessica Ferguson

Dr. Jessica Ferguson is a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Research Fellow in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy at the University of Newcastle, affiliated with the Hunter Medical Research Institute's Food and Nutrition Research Program and the Nutraceuticals Research Program. She earned her Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours Class 1) in 2014 and her PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry in 2019, both from the University of Newcastle. As an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) and Accredited Nutritionist (AN), she has accumulated over seven years of consulting experience in private practice, delivering patient-centered, evidence-based nutrition counselling. Additionally, she serves part-time as a dietitian for Sanitarium Health Food Company. Her doctoral research focused on the cardiovascular health benefits of food bioactives, particularly phytosterols, curcumin, and high molecular weight oat β-glucan, in individuals with elevated cholesterol levels.

Dr. Ferguson's academic interests center on nutrition interventions for chronic disease prevention, including the dietary profiles, nutritional adequacy, and health outcomes of plant-based diets compared to meat-based diets in Australian adults. Her work encompasses metabolomic profiling in response to controlled feeding studies, validation of dietary assessment tools against biomarkers like red blood cell membrane fatty acids, and systematic reviews on topics such as plant-based diets' effects on weight status in type 2 diabetes. Key publications include 'Effects of Plant-Based Diets on Weight Status in Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials' (2021), 'High molecular weight oat β-glucan enhances lipid-lowering effects of phytosterols in vivo by modulating sterol transporter expression' (2019), 'Curcumin potentiates cholesterol-lowering effects of phytosterols in hypercholesterolaemic individuals' (2018), 'Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Australians: Protocol for a Cross-Sectional Study' (2023), and 'Metabolite Profiles in Response to Dietary Interventions for Management of Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review' (2025). As chief co-investigator in the Nutrition and Metabolic Health program, she has secured over $250,000 in funding from local and international industry partners. Dr. Ferguson received the 2018 Junior Investigator Award from the journal Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental, along with the New Investigator Award and Top New Investigator Award from the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL).