Nutritional Sciences

Mallory Boylan, PhD, RD, LD, Professor

• Research areas include antioxidants and health and nutrients in breast milk.

Jamie Cooper, PhD, Assistant Professor

• Research interest in Human Obesity, which includes studying patterns of body weight and body composition change, hunger and satiety hormones, energy metabolism, and nutrition and exercise interventions.

Naïma Moustaïd-Moussa, Ph.D., Professor

• Instructor for graduate courses in advanced nutritional biochemistry and research methods, obesity topics, metabolism and nutrient-gene interactions. Primary research interests include dietary and hormonal regulation of adipocyte metabolism and endocrine function, role of adipocytes in obesity-associated inflammation, insulin resistance and metabolic disorders; obesity-breast cancer link. These studies use genetic and dietary-induced animal models as well as cell culture models of rodent and human adipose tissue. Secondary research interest in childhood obesity prevention.

Mary Murimi, Ph.D., R.D., L.D.N., Professor

• Instructor for undergraduate and graduate courses in nutrition education, childhood obesity, nutrition through the life cycle, and community nutrition. Research interests include community-base- participatory research among low income population, school-based interventions and food insecurity at the local and global level.

Chad M. Paton, PhD, Assistant Professor

• Research interests in the regulation of metabolism in health and disease which includes work in animal and cell models. Ongoing projects include assessment of high fat diet induced obesity on nuclear receptor function.

Shaikh Mizanoor Rahman, Ph.D. Research Assistant Professor

• My teaching interest includes metabolism, nutritional biochemistry and nutrient and immune function. My main research interest is to identify cellular and molecular basis of the regulation of immune cell function in the context of obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis. I am also interested to assess macrophage specific role of C/EBPβ on cholesterol uptake and trafficking in atherosclerosis. We will use knock-out mouse, siRNA transfection , bone marrow transplantation and invitro cell culture model to address those scientific questions.

Debra Reed, PhD, RD, LD, Professor

• Research interests include prevention of overweight in children and adults and nutrition education for diverse and disadvantaged populations.

Julian Spallholz, PhD, Professor

• Research area include nutritional and toxicological aspects of selenium and its compounds, drug development using selenium free radical chemistry, arsenic toxicity.

Dr. Shu Wang, MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

• Research interests include nutrition and inflammation and chronic diseases. Our research group encapsulates nutrients and natural compounds into biocompatible and biodegradable nanoparticles to dramatically increase their cellular bioavailability, stability and target specificity to specific cells or tissues, with the goal of preventing and curing chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases, obesity and cancers.

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