Dr Taskeen Niaz presented her research at the Government Chemistry Conference 2026

Dr Taskeen Niaz (Research and Innovation fellow, National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC)) recently presented her work at the Government Chemistry Conference 2026, Nexus, University of Leeds, which brought together diverse audience from academia, industry, government, policy, and regulatory authorities.

In her talk she focused on how NAPIC is addressing the safety and standardisation challenges associated with alternative proteins by leveraging her fundamental research on in vitro digestion and machine learning. During her talk, she highlighted how an integrated framework combining digestion, structural biology, digestomics, peptidomics, immunoinformatics and machine learning can identify potential allergenicity in alternative proteins. She also discussed how this framework can support policymakers and regulatory authorities in developing more data-driven safety guidelines for novel proteins. That will not only enhance consumer confidence but also help us to accelerate innovation in the alternative protein sector. Highlight of the talk was discussion with professionals from academia and regulatory background with the emphasis on to develop reproducible methods and shared datasets to shape the future of safe alternative protein innovation and adoption.