Research Seminar - 1st September 2026

September 1^st, 2026 / 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Salle I-204 Campus Gérard Pélisson – Institut Lyfe 

and by webconference 

25-27 chemin du Trouillat 69130 Ecully

 Open participation – Upon registration for external (see below)

2.00pm – 2.30pm: Samia Saraya- Jean  

PhD candidate at Institut Lyfe Research & Innovation Center and University of Lyon 1 

“Coping with Sensory Alterations During Childhood Cancer Treatment: Insights from Healthcare Professionals, Children, and Parents"

 Sensory alterations, particularly changes in taste and smell, are among the most frequent and distressing side effects experienced by children undergoing chemotherapy. These changes can profoundly affect eating behavior, nutritional status, treatment tolerance, and quality of life. Despite their clinical importance, little is known about how these challenges are perceived and managed in daily pediatric oncology practice, or how children, parents, and healthcare professionals experience them. This seminar presents findings from three qualitative studies exploring the perspectives of healthcare professionals, children with cancer, and their parents. By bringing together these complementary viewpoints, I will highlight the challenges associated with sensory alterations, the coping strategies adopted by families and clinicians, and opportunities to improve multidisciplinary nutritional support and patient-centered care throughout cancer treatment.

Samia Saraya Jean is a PhD candidate in Nutrition and eating behavior at Institut Lyfe Research & Innovation Center and University of Lyon 1. Her work focuses on eating behavior in children with cancer, particularly sensory alterations during chemotherapy and their impact on their eating behavior, using qualitative and quantitative approaches.

2.30pm – 4.00pm: Pr Remco Havermans

Maastricht University, Campus Venlo

“Future foods refusal”

Remco Havermans: Remco was born in 1974, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He studied psychology at Radboud University (Nijmegen), researching context specificity of conditioned appetitive responses in rats during his final internship at the department of comparative and physiological psychology. He obtained his PhD at Maastricht University, studying the Pavlovian nature of human appetite and substance use, supervised by Anita Jansen. 

Since 2015, Remco works at Maastricht University Campus Venlo where he started his own research group examining the interplay between flavor perception and eating behavior. Remco's research efforts, since moving to Campus Venlo, have meandered between examining sensory-specific satiation, chemotherapy induced taste alterations, public acceptance of health nudges, personalized gastronomy, hospital food waste management, consumer perception of meat alternatives, children's vegetable acceptance, nutrition education, efficacy of front of pack nutrition labels, children led food innovation, the monitoring of food allergy risk, childhood disorders of gut-brain interaction, food neophobia in older individuals, and reasons for supplement use among recreational half marathoners. Currently, his research focusses on the broader question of how to promote a sustainable nutrition transition.

Instructions to follow to attend the Seminar

The Institut Lyfe Research and Innovation Center's team would be pleased to count you among its participants to its Research Seminar, which will take place in Salle I-204 Campus Gérard Pélisson – Institut Lyfe and by webconference. 

Open participation – Upon registration for external participants. Click here to register or  send an email to science@institutlyfe.com.