Prof. Ellen Blaak is Professor in Human Biology since 2007 and is Chair of the Department of Human Biology. Her research focuses on the interorgan metabolic cross-talk (gut-adipose tissue-muscle metabolism) in the aetiology of obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (>230 publ) as well as the impact of nutritional or lifestyle intervention. Beside being professor at Maastricht University, she is project leader within the Top Institute Food and Nutrition, a public-private partnership of academia and international Food Industry, focussed on precompetitive research. She is member of the Nutrition committee of the Dutch Health Council and of several advisory board/grant evaluation committees. She is Secretary of the European Association for the Study of Obesity. She obtained funding from among others the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific research, Dutch Diabetes Research Foundation, European Union and Public-Private Partnerships as a PI for more than 30 research projects and has supervised more than 25 PhD theses.