Dr Bernadine Flanagan
Dr

Bernadine Flanagan

Email: 
Phone: 
+61 7 336 53449

Background

Since joining the Centre for Nutrition and Food Science in 2004, my work has focussed on food structure and how it changes during digestion and fermentation. I use NMR spectroscopy and wet chemistry techniques, to characterise polysaccharides particularly: starch, plant cell walls, dietary fibre and cellulose. My research has resulted in the publication of 93 papers with over 6000 citations and a H-index of 39 (scopus). I regularly review papers for Food Hydrocolloids and Carbohydrate polymers. I have co-supervised eight PhDs to completion and am currently co-supervising four PhD students and am principal supervisor to one PhD and two masters students.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Honours, 1997, UQ) and PhD in Inorganic Chemistry (2002, UQ) I worked with Prof David Fairlie (h-index 104, 42, 140 citations) to study peptide synthesis and high-field, multi-dimensional NMR.

I have practical experience with in vitro and digestion and fermentation and havecollaborated to perfect a batch fermentation system to compare the fermentability of a number of complex dietary fibres using human faecal inoculum. Using this methodology, I have studied how the chemistry and architecture of dietary fibres affects the digestion and fermentation of starches and dietary fibres. My Skills in NMR spectroscopy have enabled me to develop methods for quantifying starch molecular order and to quantify Short Chain Fatty acids and other fermemetabolites.

Availability

Dr Bernadine Flanagan is:
Available for supervision

Fields of research

Food sciences Macromolecular and materials chemistry

Qualifications

  • Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), The University of Queensland
  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Research interests

  • Investigating food structure and how it affects digestibility and fermentability.

    Characterising starch and dietary fibres and exploring how they change in response to differences in processing conditions. How does food architecture affect the digestibility and fermentability of food and feeds. Using spectroscopy and analytical chemistry techniques to explore the composition and structures of food and feeds. Determining how the interaction of plant cell wall polysaccharides influences their structure and function with particular focus on the interactions of cellulose hemicelluloses. How the density and solubility of plant cell wall components drives fermentability.

Research impacts

Over the last twenty years (13 years FTE) I have been part of many multi-disciplinary teams working with industry, government and fellow university based researchers nationally and internationally. For Six years as part of the CSIRO Food Futures Flagship and then for 7 years as a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Cell walls, a team of over 80 researchers, based at UA, UM, ANSTO and international collaborators in the UK and Sweden. These collaborations lead to many multi-disciplinary publications with a focus of polysaccharide structure and function. Using NMR, I established new methods for polysaccharide structure analysis and increased our understanding of complex plant cell wall structure relationships.

In 2005 I was awarded a UQ New Staff Research Start Up Fund. In 2023 I was a CI on a successful $1.68 million ARC LIEF bid for a national network for magnetic resonance spectroscopy. I am a CI on a recently awarded a $788, 130 ARC Linkage grant, LP240100343, in this project I will lead the activities in polysaccharide structure and characterisation. As a result of my interest in plant polysaccharides, I was voted Vice Chair of Australasian Grain Science Association (AGSA) and was appointed 2025 AGSA Brisbane conference chair.

Search Professor Bernadine Flanagan’s works on UQ eSpace

129 works between 1999 and 2026
All (129) Journal Article (95) Conference Publication (32) Other Outputs (2)

41 - 60 of 129 works

2021

Conference Publication

Understanding and utilizing variability within wattleseed species for better food applications

Jacob, Sera Susan, Smyth, Heather E., Flanagan, Bernadine M., Williams, Barbara A. and Gidley, Michael J. (2021). Understanding and utilizing variability within wattleseed species for better food applications. 6th Food Structure, Digestion and Health Conference , Virtual, 16-19 November 2021.

Understanding and utilizing variability within wattleseed species for better food applications

2020

Journal Article

Metabolism of Black Carrot Polyphenols during In Vitro Fermentation is Not Affected by Cellulose or Cell Wall Association

Netzel, Gabriele, Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Netzel, Michael E., Gidley, Michael J. and Williams, Barbara A. (2020). Metabolism of Black Carrot Polyphenols during In Vitro Fermentation is Not Affected by Cellulose or Cell Wall Association. Foods, 9 (12) 1911, 1911. doi: 10.3390/foods9121911

Metabolism of Black Carrot Polyphenols during In Vitro Fermentation is Not Affected by Cellulose or Cell Wall Association

2020

Journal Article

Cell wall architecture as well as chemical composition determines fermentation of wheat cell walls by a faecal inoculum

Lu, Shiyi, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Williams, Barbara A., Mikkelsen, Deirdre and Gidley, Michael J. (2020). Cell wall architecture as well as chemical composition determines fermentation of wheat cell walls by a faecal inoculum. Food Hydrocolloids, 107 105858, 105858. doi: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2020.105858

Cell wall architecture as well as chemical composition determines fermentation of wheat cell walls by a faecal inoculum

2020

Journal Article

Wood hemicelluloses exert distinct biomechanical contributions to cellulose fibrillar networks

Berglund, Jennie, Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Dhital, Sushil, Gaunitz, Stefan, Henriksson, Gunnar, Lindström, Mikael E., Yakubov, Gleb E., Gidley, Michael J. and Vilaplana, Francisco (2020). Wood hemicelluloses exert distinct biomechanical contributions to cellulose fibrillar networks. Nature Communications, 11 (1) 4692, 4692. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18390-z

Wood hemicelluloses exert distinct biomechanical contributions to cellulose fibrillar networks

2020

Journal Article

In vitro fermentation outcomes of arabinoxylan and galactoxyloglucan depend on fecal inoculum more than substrate chemistry

Feng, Guangli, Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Hoedt, Emily C., Williams, Barbara A., Flanagan, Bernadine M., Morrison, Mark and Gidley, Michael J. (2020). In vitro fermentation outcomes of arabinoxylan and galactoxyloglucan depend on fecal inoculum more than substrate chemistry. Food and Function, 11 (9), 7892-7904. doi: 10.1039/d0fo01103g

In vitro fermentation outcomes of arabinoxylan and galactoxyloglucan depend on fecal inoculum more than substrate chemistry

2020

Journal Article

High-amylose wheat and maize starches have distinctly different granule organization and annealing behaviour: a key role for chain mobility

Li, Haiteng, Dhital, Sushil, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Mata, Jitendra, Gilbert, Elliot P. and Gidley, Michael J. (2020). High-amylose wheat and maize starches have distinctly different granule organization and annealing behaviour: a key role for chain mobility. Food Hydrocolloids, 105 105820, 105820. doi: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2020.105820

High-amylose wheat and maize starches have distinctly different granule organization and annealing behaviour: a key role for chain mobility

2020

Journal Article

Fruit and vegetable insoluble dietary fibre in vitro fermentation characteristics depend on cell wall type

Widaningrum, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Williams, Barbara A., Sonni, Francesca, Mikkelsen, Deirdre and Gidley, Michael J. (2020). Fruit and vegetable insoluble dietary fibre in vitro fermentation characteristics depend on cell wall type. Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre, 23 100223, 100223. doi: 10.1016/j.bcdf.2020.100223

Fruit and vegetable insoluble dietary fibre in vitro fermentation characteristics depend on cell wall type

2019

Journal Article

Characterizing the impact of starch and gluten-induced alterations on gelatinization behavior of physically modified model dough

Paulik, Sabina, Wen Yu, Wen, Flanagan, Bernadine, Gilbert, Robert G., Jekle, Mario and Becker, Thomas (2019). Characterizing the impact of starch and gluten-induced alterations on gelatinization behavior of physically modified model dough. Food Chemistry, 301 125276, 125276. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.125276

Characterizing the impact of starch and gluten-induced alterations on gelatinization behavior of physically modified model dough

2019

Journal Article

“Dietary fibre”: moving beyond the “soluble/insoluble” classification for monogastric nutrition, with an emphasis on humans and pigs

Williams, Barbara A., Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Flanagan, Bernadine M. and Gidley, Michael J. (2019). “Dietary fibre”: moving beyond the “soluble/insoluble” classification for monogastric nutrition, with an emphasis on humans and pigs. Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology, 10 (1) 45, 45. doi: 10.1186/s40104-019-0350-9

“Dietary fibre”: moving beyond the “soluble/insoluble” classification for monogastric nutrition, with an emphasis on humans and pigs

2019

Journal Article

Microbial enzymatic degradation of tamarind galactoxyloglucan and wheat arabinoxylan by a porcine faecal inoculum

Feng, Guangli, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Williams, Barbara A. and Gidley, Michael J. (2019). Microbial enzymatic degradation of tamarind galactoxyloglucan and wheat arabinoxylan by a porcine faecal inoculum. Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre, 18 100183, 100183. doi: 10.1016/j.bcdf.2019.100183

Microbial enzymatic degradation of tamarind galactoxyloglucan and wheat arabinoxylan by a porcine faecal inoculum

2019

Conference Publication

Hydrogels of bacterial cellulose and wood hemicelluloses as a model of plant secondary cell walls

Berglund, Jennie, Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Flanagan, Bernadine, Dhital, Sushil, Henriksson, Gunnar, Lindstrom, Mikael, Yakubov, Gleb, Gidley, Michael and Vilaplana, Francisco (2019). Hydrogels of bacterial cellulose and wood hemicelluloses as a model of plant secondary cell walls. National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Orlando, Florida, 31 March - 4 April 2019. Washington, DC, United States: American Chemical Society.

Hydrogels of bacterial cellulose and wood hemicelluloses as a model of plant secondary cell walls

2018

Journal Article

Extracellular depolymerisation triggers fermentation of tamarind xyloglucan and wheat arabinoxylan by a porcine faecal inoculum

Feng, Guangli, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Williams, Barbara A., Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Yu, Wenwen and Gidley, Michael J. (2018). Extracellular depolymerisation triggers fermentation of tamarind xyloglucan and wheat arabinoxylan by a porcine faecal inoculum. Carbohydrate Polymers, 201, 575-582. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.08.089

Extracellular depolymerisation triggers fermentation of tamarind xyloglucan and wheat arabinoxylan by a porcine faecal inoculum

2018

Journal Article

Quantitative structural organisation model for wheat endosperm cell walls: Cellulose as an important constituent

Gartaula, Ghanendra, Dhital, Sushil, Netzel, Gabriele, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Yakubov, Gleb E., Beahan, Cherie T., Collins, Helen M., Burton, Rachel A., Bacic, Antony and Gidley, Michael J. (2018). Quantitative structural organisation model for wheat endosperm cell walls: Cellulose as an important constituent. Carbohydrate Polymers, 196, 199-208. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.05.041

Quantitative structural organisation model for wheat endosperm cell walls: Cellulose as an important constituent

2018

Journal Article

Food starch structure impacts gut microbiome composition

Warren, Frederick J., Fukuma, Naoki M., Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Williams, Barbara A., Lisle, Allan T., Ó Cuív, Páraic, Morrison, Mark and Gidley, Michael J. (2018). Food starch structure impacts gut microbiome composition. mSphere, 3 (3) e00086-18. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00086-18

Food starch structure impacts gut microbiome composition

2018

Journal Article

Mechanisms of utilisation of arabinoxylans by a porcine faecal inoculum: competition and co-operation

Feng, Guangli, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Williams, Barbara A., Yu, Wenwen, Gilbert, Robert G and Gidley, Michael J (2018). Mechanisms of utilisation of arabinoxylans by a porcine faecal inoculum: competition and co-operation. Scientific Reports, 8 (1) 4546, 4546. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-22818-4

Mechanisms of utilisation of arabinoxylans by a porcine faecal inoculum: competition and co-operation

2017

Journal Article

Structure of cellulose microfibrils in mature cotton fibres

Martinez-Sanz, Marta, Pettolino, Filomena, Flanagan, Bernadine, Gidley, Michael J. and Gilbert, Elliot P. (2017). Structure of cellulose microfibrils in mature cotton fibres. Carbohydrate Polymers, 175, 450-463. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.07.090

Structure of cellulose microfibrils in mature cotton fibres

2017

Journal Article

Binding selectivity of dietary polyphenols to different plant cell wall components: quantification and mechanism

Phan, Anh Dao T., Flanagan, Bernadine M., D'Arcy, Bruce R. and Gidley, Michael J. (2017). Binding selectivity of dietary polyphenols to different plant cell wall components: quantification and mechanism. Food Chemistry, 233, 216-227. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.04.115

Binding selectivity of dietary polyphenols to different plant cell wall components: quantification and mechanism

2017

Journal Article

Multi-scale characterisation of deuterated cellulose composite hydrogels reveals evidence for different interaction mechanisms with arabinoxylan, mixed-linkage glucan and xyloglucan

Martinez-Sanz, Marta, Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Flanagan, Bernadine M., Gidley, Michael J. and Gilbert, Elliot P. (2017). Multi-scale characterisation of deuterated cellulose composite hydrogels reveals evidence for different interaction mechanisms with arabinoxylan, mixed-linkage glucan and xyloglucan. Polymer, 124, 1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.polymer.2017.07.036

Multi-scale characterisation of deuterated cellulose composite hydrogels reveals evidence for different interaction mechanisms with arabinoxylan, mixed-linkage glucan and xyloglucan

2017

Journal Article

Structural and enzyme kinetic studies of retrograded starch: inhibition of α-amylase and consequences for intestinal digestion of starch

Patel, Hamung, Royall, Paul G., Gaisford, Simon, Williams, Gareth R. W, Edwards, Cathrina H., Warren Frederick J., Flanagan, Bernadine M., Ellis, Peter R. and Butterworth, Peter J. (2017). Structural and enzyme kinetic studies of retrograded starch: inhibition of α-amylase and consequences for intestinal digestion of starch. Carbohydrate Polymers, 164, 154-161. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.01.040

Structural and enzyme kinetic studies of retrograded starch: inhibition of α-amylase and consequences for intestinal digestion of starch

2017

Journal Article

Characterisation of bacterial cellulose from diverse Komagataeibacter strains and their application to construct plant cell wall analogues

Chen, Si-Qian, Mikkelsen, Deirdre, Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia, Wang, Dongjie, Martinez-Sanz, Marta, Gilbert, Elliot P., Flanagan, Bernadine M. and Gidley, Michael J. (2017). Characterisation of bacterial cellulose from diverse Komagataeibacter strains and their application to construct plant cell wall analogues. Cellulose, 24 (3), 1211-1226. doi: 10.1007/s10570-017-1203-3

Characterisation of bacterial cellulose from diverse Komagataeibacter strains and their application to construct plant cell wall analogues

Current funding

  • 2025 - 2028
    Chemical and mechanical modification of starch-based packaging materials
    ARC Linkage Projects
    Open grant

Past funding

  • 2024 - 2025
    A national network for magnetic resonance spectroscopy
    ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities
    Open grant
  • 2005 - 2007
    Study of Iron Chelation in Rice
    UQ New Staff Research Start-Up Fund
    Open grant

Availability

Dr Bernadine Flanagan is:
Available for supervision

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Supervision history

Current supervision

Completed supervision

Enquiries

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