Clarissa Strieder-Barboza, D.V.M., M.S., Ph.D.

Personal Information

Dr. Clarissa Strieder-Barboza’s research focuses on uncovering mechanisms by which dysfunctional adipose tissue impacts health of periparturient dairy cattle and humans with obesity. Her major research goal is to identify novel targets to develop therapeutics and nutritional strategies for preventing metabolic disease, relevant to both animal and human health.

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 Association for the Advancement of Science, American Diabetes Association, Board of Veterinary Medicine (Colombia) and American Dairy Science Association.

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

Future Research Collaboration Interests

• Role of adipose tissue function on the development of breast cancer in obesity 
• Validation of large animal models to study obesity and metabolic disease pathogenesis in humans
• Adipose tissue cell subtypes involved in the pathogenesis of gestational type 2 diabetes