Clarissa Strieder-Barboza, Ph.D.

Background

Dr. Strieder-Barboza earned her degree in veterinary medicine at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria in Santa Maria, Brazil, and her master's degree in veterinary science-animal health from the Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia, Chile.  Her doctorate in comparative medicine and integrative biology is from the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Large Animal Clinical Science in East Lansing, Michigan. She is a member of the American Dairy Science Association, American Society of Animal Science, Board of Veterinary Medicine (Colombia) and a Board Member of the TTU Obesity Research Institute.

Prior to joining the Tech faculty, Strieder-Barboza served as a postdoctoral research fellow in University of Michigan Medical School's Department of Surgery in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where her translational biomedical research focused on mechanisms of adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity-associated type 2 diabetes in humans. She also worked as a veterinary instructor with the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia in Colombia.

Research Interests

• Transcriptional and functional cell heterogeneity in adipose tissue regulated by metabolic disease
• Adipose tissue extracellular matrix and its role on adipocyte metabolism
• Nutritional strategies to modulate adipose tissue function in metabolic disease and obesity
• Depot-specific characteristics of adipose tissue in the context of metabolic disease and meat quality in cattle

Research Program

Dr. Strieder-Barboza’s research centers on understanding the mechanisms by which adipose tissue dysfunction impacts health and animal production. Her work has improved the understanding of the links between dysregulated adipose tissue responses and metabolic disease in large animal, mice and human models, with the major goal of enabling the design of novel strategies to prevent and treat metabolic disorders, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes in humans, and ketosis in cattle.

Most recently, Dr. Strieder-Barboza’s research program extended to understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which adipose tissue deposits and expands within muscle in beef cattle. Her training as a veterinarian scientist provided her with strong knowledge in bovine adipocyte tissue biology contributing with novel research in adipose tissue remodeling and adipose progenitor cell biology.

As an Assistant Professor at TTU, Dr. Strieder-Barboza has received NIFA-USDA research awards for studying adipose tissue biology at the single-cell level, focusing on the understanding of pathways by which distinct subpopulations of adipose progenitor cells regulate local and systemic metabolic and immune responses in the context of periparturient metabolic disease in dairy cows and meat production in beef cattle. Her major research goal is to identify novel targets to develop therapeutics and nutritional strategies for preventing metabolic disorders and improve health and production, relevant to both animals and humans.