People

Nutrient sensitive regulatory pathways in aging and age-associated disease

Genetics of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic diseases; Genetics of diet responsiveness

Study of small molecules abundantly present in the gut that are substantially synthesized and modulated by gut bacteria, and how they influence health and disease

Changes in pancreatic beta cell gene expression in response to obesity and in the setting of beta cell proliferation

Investigation of the proposed “Histone Code”; understanding the mechanisms of enzymes that reversibly modify proteins and the effects of these modifications on protein function

We investigate how stem cell lineages are regulated by diet, metabolism, and physiology in Drosophila melanogaster

Cellular and Genetic Toxicology. Iron. Regulation of iron metabolism. Molecular regulation of the synthesis of iron transport and storage proteins (not currently taking grad students)

Immunometabolism; Cancer metabolism; dynamic metabolic regulation

Mixed-methods approaches and clinical trials to identify barriers to obesity care and test interventions designed to increase use of obesity treatments

Metabolic regulation of adipose tissue

Intracellular signal transduction and membrane/protein trafficking in gastrointestinal epithelial cells (not currently taking grad students)

Mechanistic intersection between bariatric surgery, metabolism, and aging; Bariatric surgery effects on the process of cellular senescence

Regulation of lactation and milk synthesis in relation to the autocrine, paracrine, endocrine and serotonin systems; Regulation of mammary gland calcium transport and maternal calcium homeostasis during lactation

Building novel concepts and approaches (e.g., dietary intervention, bacteriophage therapy) for coping with bacterial pathogens

Muscle and protein metabolism, nutritional management in clinical populations

The regulation of healthy aging by what, when, and how much we eat.

Intersection of diet, gut microbes, circadian rhythms, and metabolism using preclinical models

Vitamin D metabolism, inflammatory disease, gene expression regulation, bioinformatics, genome-editing

Gene-diet interactions, obesity, diabetes, and systems genetics

Research on the gut microbiome, nutrition, and intestinal physiology and disease

Abdominal adiposity, liver fat, liver iron overload and other features of diffuse liver disease, quantification of perfusion in liver tumors, hemodynamics of portal hypertension, and the use of new contrast agents in liver and biliary diseases

Understand how variations in the gut microbiome modulate the effects of diet and host’s susceptibility to cardiometabolic disease

Caloric restriction, metabolism, biology of aging, systems biology, gene expression regulation

Human cardiovascular control during exercise or environmental stress, focused on the impact of obesity and insulin resistance on blood flow regulation to skeletal muscle and brain

Transcriptional regulation of nutrient responsive pathways in thermogenesis

Vitamin A status assessment and provitamin A carotenoids as sources of vitamin A; vegetables and fruit intake to enhance health

Diet-Microbe-Phage interactions in the gut ecosystem and development of microbial therapeutics

Protein metabolism; retinoids in epithelial biology; voice and swallow disorders

Intestine, assimilation of dietary fat, triacylglycerol synthesis, and energy balance