Katherine Brain

Katherine Brain is a Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle. She also serves as Senior Dietitian at Hunter Integrated Pain Service and holds leadership roles with organizations like Chronic Pain Australia and Australian Pain Society.

• Doctor of Philosophy in Nutrition and Dietetics (University of Newcastle)
• Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours) (University of Newcastle)

Research Focus: Bridging nutrition and chronic pain management through consumer-centered approaches. Specializes in nutritional interventions for chronic pain, telehealth applications, and translational research. Key areas include inflammatory dietary patterns, pain-nutrition interactions, and rural health solutions.

Publication Trends: Recent work examines brain-gut axis mechanisms (2025), telehealth nutrition models (2025), and chronic pain multimorbidity frameworks (2025). Earlier studies cover systematic reviews of dietary interventions (2019), family-based obesity programs (2016), and neural responses to food (2014).

Scientific Recognition:

• 2018 School Health Science Research Day: Best Poster
• 2018 School of Health Science Research Day: One minute pitch
• 2015 Felicity Thompson Rainbow Foundation Top-Up Scholarship
• 2015 Australian Postgraduate Award

Leadership & Grants: Currently leads $284,247 DFAT-funded PNG Short Course in Nutrition Security and co-investigates $1.2M Graduate Certificate in Nutrition (DFAT). Previously directed $18,430 PREDICT study (Hunter New England) and $4,200 Strategic Pilot Grant (University of Newcastle).