Tolunay Aydemir, PhD; Assistant Professor; Nutritional Chemistry; Biochemistry, Metabolism, Obesity Prevention. The Aydemir Research Group is aimed at developing a greater understanding of how zinc and manganese function to regulate different cellular processes central to maintaining homeostasis, and thus health.

in the news

• Intestine-specific deletion of metal transporter Zip14 (Slc39a14) causes brain manganese overload and locomotor defects of manganism

Laura Barre, MD, RD; Assistant Clinical Professor, Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD). The overarching goal of Dr. Barre's research program is to reduce obesity and sarcopenic obesity in late life adults.

Joeva Barrow, PhD, RD; Assistant Professor. Professor Barrow's primary research focus is Mitochondrial disease. This group of diseases represents one of the most commonly inherited human diseases.

Twitter @LabBarrow

in the news

• Tackling Obesity and Metabolic Disease
• 2019 Winner of PCCW Affinito-Stewart Grant for "High-Throughput Screening Approaches to Combat Mitochondrial Disease"

Daniel Berry, PhD; Assistant Professor. The Berry Lab focuses on understanding adipose tissue biology and systemic metabolism by studying adipose stem cells (ASC).

Twitter @DCBerryLab

in the news:

• miR-26 suppresses adipocyte progenitordifferentiation and fat production bytargetingFbxl19

Patricia Ann Cassano, MPH, PhD; Professor & Division Director; the Alan D. Mathios Professor in the College of Human Ecology (CHE). The overarching goal of the Cassano Lab's research is to understand the role of nutrition and its interaction with genome in the etiology of chronic disease.

Twitter @Cassano_Cornell

Marie Caudill, PhD, RD; Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. Professor Caudill is internationally recognized for her work on folate and choline, and the intake levels required to meet metabolic requirements and improve physiological outcomes. She has published over 130 papers, reviews, and chapters in this area, and is frequently an invited speaker on topics related to the importance of choline nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.  Professor Caudill is also an editor on the popular graduate level nutrition textbook "Biochemical, Physiological, & Molecular Aspects of Human Nutrition”. Current research activities include assessing the effect of maternal choline supplementation during pregnancy on DHA delivery to the developing fetus.

in the news

• Scientific Dietary Guidelines Suggest Americans Consume Too Little Choline
• Current choline intake levels are too low for most Americans, say health and nutrition experts
• How to choose a prenatal vitamin

Kate Dickin, PhD; Associate Research Professor. Professor Dickin's work includes formative and implementation research to improve the effectiveness of maternal and child nutrition interventions and strengthen multisectoral nutrition capacity, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. She leads the CENTIR Group, focusing on community-based programs supporting low-income families' efforts to help children thrive and is the Director of the Program in International Nutrition (PIN).

in the news:

• Cornell researchers join five-year USAID nutrition project

David Erickson, PhD; Joint Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences; Sibley College Professor of Mechanical Engineering.  Current research interests include smartphone-based nutrition and cholesterol analysis. Dr. Davidson is a co-founder of INSiGHT, along with Dr. Saurabh Mehta, Associate Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. INSiGHT is Cornell's Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Global Health and Technology.

Martha Field, PhD; Assistant Professor. The Field Lab studies gene-nutrient-environment interactions, and underlying molecular mechanisms, that lead to development of pathology.  These efforts are currently centered around:  1) the role of nutrition in maintaining mitochondrial DNA integrity and mitochondrial function, 2) understanding the role of the blood-brain barrier in maintaining brain nutrient status, and 3) understanding the relationship between specific gene variants in defining genetic predisposition to weight gain. 

Twitter @marthafield7

in the news:

• Mammalian metabolism of erythritol: a predictive biomarker of metabolic dysfunction
• 2019 Winner of PCCW Affinito-Stewart Grant for "Novel methods to detect uracil misincorporation in mitochondrial DNA at near base-pair resolution"
• The Role of Brain Barrier in Maintaining Brain Vitamin Levels
• Deoxyuracil in DNA and disease: Genomic signal or managed situation?
• New metabolic discovery may inform heart disease, diabetes solutions

• Understanding the metabolic pathways to obesity and diabetes

Roger Figueroa, PhD, MPH, MSc is a Provost New Faculty Fellow (2019-2020), Assistant Professor (eff. 7/1/20) in Social and Behavioral Science in Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Science. The Figueroa Interdisciplinary Group (FIG Lab) combines concepts and methods across disciplinary boundaries to examine interconnections between the social and behavioral determinants of health, with a particular focus on children's energy-balance behaviors in underrepresented and low-income communities.

Twitter @RogerFigPhD

in the news:

• Grants seed social science research, conferences

Julia Finkelstein, MPH, SM, ScD; Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition | The Follett Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow; Cornell Global Ambassador. The goal of the Finkelstein Laboratory is to determine the role of iron, vitamin B₁₂, and folate in the etiology of anemia and adverse pregnancy outcomes, to inform the development of interventions to improve the health of mothers and young children. Major research projects include randomized trials, cohort studies, and surveillance programs in Southern India.

Twitter @FinkelsteinLab

in the news:

• Transmission of novel coronavirus-19 through breast milk and breastfeeding. A living systematic review of the evidence
• Faculty inform WHO’s COVID-19 and breastfeeding guidelines
• Nutritional assessment among adult patients with suspected or confirmed active tuberculosis disease in rural India
• Fluorescence lateral flow competitive protein binding assay for the assessment of serum folate concentrations
• Impact study demonstrates Bt brinjal (eggplant) helps farmers earn more with less pesticide

• Julia Finkelstein, Division of Nutritional Sciences, named as a Cornell Global Ambassador

Emily Gier, MBA, RD; Associate Professor of Practice and Dietetic Internship Director

As the Director of the Dietetic Internship (DI) Emily assists students with the pursuit of a career in dietetics. The DI provides students with supervised practice in dietetics to qualify graduates to obtain the credential of Registered Dietitian/Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RD/RDN). Emily's areas of expertise include clinical nutrition and management as it applies to the field of dietetics and health care settings. Areas of interest include the nutrition care process, nutrition support, medical nutrition therapy and process improvement. Emily is also interested in health care management of resources (staff, insurance issues, regulation), particularly in the acute care setting.

Zhenglong Gu, PhD; Professor. The Gu Lab investigates the evolution of mitochondrial functions and the role of mtDNA mutation in aging and various diseases, including but not limited to tumor, autism and neural degenerative diseases.

Twitter @GuZhenglong

in the news:

• Mounting evidence links mitochondrial DNA to autism
• Mutations in mitochondria genes may raise autism risk
• Study shows link between mitochondrial DNA and autism
• Autism spectrum disorder linked to mutations in some mitochondrial DNA
• Internationalization grants awarded to faculty
• Healthy people carry disease-causing mitochondrial DNA mutations

John F. Hoddinott, D.Phil; Babcock Professor of Food and Nutrition Economics and Policy. Professor Hoddinott's current research interests focus on the links between economics, food security and early life nutrition. He has ongoing collaborative projects in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Guatemala.

in the news:

• Nutrition, Adult Cognitive Skills, and Productivity: Results and Influence of the INCAP Longitudinal Study
• E-Vouchers For Food Might Reduce Stunting In Rohingya Children Living In Bangladesh
• Hoddinott awarded The Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize for Applied Policy Analysis
• Can village nutrition schools reduce widespread malnutrition?
• Food markets near Ethiopia’s poor provide too little diversity at too high a price: new study
• Impact study demonstrates Bt brinjal (eggplant) helps farmers earn more with less pesticide
• The World Food Prize is courting the private sector. What could go wrong?
• 'Difficult policy choices lie ahead' to improve Rohingya nutrition, research finds
• Rohingyas displaced to Bangladesh face an uncertain future
• Policy seminar: Rohingyas displaced to Bangladesh face an uncertain future
• Cash transfers prevent intimate partner violence: Study
• Can a woman's rising social status bring down rates of domestic violence?

Elizabeth Johnson, PhD; Assistant Professor. Research in the Johnson Lab focuses on how bioactive lipids from the diet influence the development of the microbiome in infants and how the production of lipids by the gut microbiome can influence host metabolism.

in the news:

• Study tracks how milk nutrients shape infant microbiome

• Dietary sphinganine is selectively assimilated by members of the mammalian gut microbiome

• A Gutsy Endeavor: Understanding Metabolites of the Humans’ “Hidden Organ”
• Sphingolipids produced by gut bacteria enter host metabolic pathways impacting ceramide levels

Tashara Leak, PhD, RD; Lois and Mel Tukman Assistant Professor is a health equity researcher who conducts interventions that aim to improve dietary behaviors of culturally diverse, urban adolescents at risk for developing obesity-related chronic diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes). Learn more about the Leak Lab.

Twitter @tasharaleak

in the news:

• Targeting health disparities among urban youth
• Urban Health
• 2018 Winner of PCCW Affinito-Stewart Grant for “Facilitators and Barriers to Participating in After School Activities: Perspectives of Low-Income Urban Youth”

David Levitsky, PhD, Professor. Professor Levitsky and his students are currently investigating (a) the efficacy of a weight monitoring program called Caloric Titration as a means of safely losing and maintaining weight loss (b) examining the effect of being weighed before eating on amount of food consumed at a meal in the laboratory, (b) examining the effect of being weighed before eating on amount and kind of foods purchased in the dining hall,(c) evaluate the effect of self-weighing on recalls of foods eaten (d) examine the priming effect of exercise and health on food consumption, (e) exam the effects of holidays on weight gain and the recover from the weight gain.

Marla Lujan, PhD, Associate Professor, Leader for Diversity and Inclusion in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. The focus of Lujan Lab relates to the interplay of nutrition and metabolic status with women’s reproductive health. Specific interests include elucidating mechanisms whereby diet, metabolism and adiposity impact ovulation; and developing use ultrasonographic features of ovarian morphology as point-of-care diagnostic indicators for ovulatory disorders, risk of concurrent comorbidities and response to diet intervention.

Twitter @CornellOvaryLab

in the news:

• Effects of Dietary Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load on Cardiometabolic and Reproductive Profiles in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
• Ultrasound characterization of disordered antral follicle development in women with polycystic ovary syndrome
• Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Hyperandrogenism Mediate the Link between Poor Diet Quality and Ovarian Dysmorphology in Reproductive-Aged Women
• Osteosarcopenia in reproductive-aged women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a multicenter case-control study
• Lujan Lab member awarded CIHR Post-Doc Fellowship Award
• Your Questions Answered: International Lifestyle Recommendations for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
• A Commentary on the New Evidence-Based Lifestyle Recommendations for Patients with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Potential Barriers to Their Implementation in the United States
• Women with PCOS report lack of trust, emotional support in primary care
• PCOS: What's the gap in patient and physician relationship?
• Women with PCOS report 'sense of inevitability' regarding weight gain, adverse outcomes
• Researcher alters how ovarian syndrome is diagnosed
• PCOS Advocacy Day

Saurabh Mehta, ScD, MBBS;  Associate Professor of Global Health, Epidemiology, and Nutrition is a physician and an epidemiologist with expertise in infectious disease, nutrition, maternal and child health, and diagnostics. He is co-founder of INSiGHT with David Erickson. This collaboration seeks to reduce health care disparities through technology. The Mehta Research Group primarily works in India with a focus on vulnerable populations including mothers and children, and those suffering from infectious diseases such as HIV infection, Tuberculosis, Dengue virus infection, Zika virus infection, and Malaria.

Twitter @MehtaRG

in the news:

• Mobile phone-based saliva test wins NIH prize
• Transmission of novel coronavirus-19 through breast milk and breastfeeding. A living systematic review of the evidence
• An Electronic Data Capture Framework (ConnEDCt) for Global and Public Health Research: Design and Implementation
• Faculty inform WHO’s COVID-19 and breastfeeding guidelines
• Current state of the art in rapid diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance
• Members of DNS win SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence
• The Nutrition-Disease Connection
• International faculty fellows make global impact
• WHO turns to Cornell experts for advice on Zika-infected moms

• Collaboration seeks to reduce health care disparities through technology

Jeanne Moseley is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Nutritional Sciences (DNS) and the Director of the Global Health Program. The mission of the Global Health Program is to engage new researchers and practitioners in the field of global health and to establish new and unique research collaborations that will foster a multidisciplinary approach to solving global health problems. To achieve this mission, she works closely with Division faculty and undergraduate students from across the university to teach, develop and evaluate curriculum for the Global and Public Health Sciences (GPHS) Major and the undergraduate minor in Global Health.  She is the lead instructor for several DNS courses.

in the news:

• Moseley receives Engaged Cornell faculty award

Kimberly O'Brien, PhD; Professor. The main research interests of the O'Brien Lab focus on mineral dynamics (calcium, iron and vitamin D) and genetic determinants of mineral absorption. On-going research also addresses maternal and fetal nutrient partitioning and the mechanisms used to control nutrient flux at the level of the placenta.  

in the news:

• Cornell partners in $10M poultry science grant
• How to Deal with Periods During Ramadan Fasting

David Pelletier, PhD; Professor. Professor Pelletier's research interests relate to the formulation, implementation and evaluation of nutrition policy, primarily in low and middle income countries. He approaches this work from a transdisciplinary, engaged and problem-oriented perspective, in which the key research questions and choice of methods emerges in the course of engaging with policy and program actors at global, national or sub-national levels. This approach is guided by robust theoretical frameworks and ensures that the research is responsive to real-world concerns and more likely to be understood, valued and used by those responsible for policies and programs.

Prabhu Pingali, PhD; Professor and Director, Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). Professor Pingali is the Founding Director of TCI and a Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, with a joint appointment in the Division of Nutritional Sciences.

Angela Poole, PhD; Assistant Professor. The goal of the Poole Lab is to elucidate the interactions between host genetics, dietary intake, and gut microbes in order to benefit host health. Current projects focus on  the amylase locus, a result of gene copy number variation, which encodes an enzyme involved in starch degradation.

in the news:

• Two life scientists win 2020 Schwartz awards
• Study reveals link between starch digestion gene, gut bacteria
• 2019 Winner of PCCW Affinito-Stewart Grant for "The Impact of Gene-Diet-Microbe Interactions on Host Health"

Shu-Bing Qian, PhD; Professor; The James Jamison Professor in Nutrition. The Qian Lab has a long standing interest in molecular mechanisms of translational control in mammalian cells; specifically, focusing on nutrient signaling, ribosome dynamics, mRNA modification, stress response, and their implications in human diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders.

in the news

• Nutrient control of mRNA translation

Kathleen Rasmussen, ScD, RD; The Nancy Schlegel Meinig Professor of Maternal and Child Nutrition. Professor Rasmussen's focus is studying the relationship between maternal nutritional status during the reproductive period and short- and long-term maternal and child health outcomes.

in the news:

• Associations of childhood BMI and change in BMI from childhood to adulthood with risks of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy
• Maternal and child health and nutrition: Week 1 of the PLOS Medicine Special Issue
• Rasmussen honored for milk and lactation research

David Sahn, PhD; International Professor of Economics in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Department of Economics. Professor Sahn's research is focused on issues of poverty, inequality, and the economics of health, nutrition, and education. His main academic interest is in identifying the solutions to poverty, malnutrition, disease and low cognitive ability in developing countries. Presently he is engaged in a major study that looks at the determinants and impacts of key demographic and economic transitions of young women in Madagascar and Senegal with a focus on understanding the importance of family background, community environment, and public policy (including school access and availability of social services) in determining early life course transitions such as leaving school, entering the labor market, childbearing, and the health and nutrition of infants and young children. In addition to teaching and mentoring of graduate students, he devotes considerable efforts to training and capacity-building of research institutions in Africa and working with government officials and international organizations to integrate research findings into policy.

Jeffery Sobal, PhD, MPH; Professor; Food Choice Research Group. Professor Sobal's research focuses on marriage and body weight, food choice processes and food systems.

Paul Soloway, PhD; Professor. Professor Soloway's research activities are in the area of epigenetics and includes several separate sets of projects.  One of these seeks to characterize the mechanisms regulating the epigenetic phenomena of DNA and histone methylation in mice using the Rasgrf1 gene as a model.  These methylation events are potent regulators of gene expression and respond to environmental variables, including nutrition, in ways that are stable and inheritable.  A second set of projects in collaboration with Prof. Barbara Strupp to characterize epigenomic mechanisms by which maternal choline supplementation leads to improved cognitive outcomes in the progeny.  Recent advances in epigenomic methods make this project tractable.  

Barbara Strupp, PhD; Professor, Director of Graduate Studies in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. Professor Strupp's research activities include maternal choline supplementation research using animal models, maternal choline supplementation research with human subjects; investigating whether the lasting cognitive benefits of maternal choline supplementation in the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down syndrome and normal littermates are mediated by epigenetics effects due to choline's role as a methyl donor and; collaborating on a project with collaborators at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Illinois to investigate the lasting cognitive and neural effects of early developmental exposure to Manganese. Learn more at the Choline Cognition Research Group.

Anna Thalacker-Mercer, PhD; Assistant Professor. (currently on leave) Professor Thalacker-Mercer's research activities in the Thalacker-Mercer Lab include characterizing primary human satellite cells/muscle progenitor cells; Identifying mechanisms/metabolic disturbances underlying impaired muscle regeneration; Identifying and characterizing metabolic disturbances underlying the aging skeletal muscle phenotype.

Twitter @atmlabcornell

in the news

• Osteosarcopenia in reproductive-aged women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a multicenter case-control study
• Precision Nutrition Symposium

Nathaniel Vacanti, PhD; Assistant Professor. The Vacanti Lab's research interests include combining high-throughput proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatic analyses with targeted metabolic investigative methods including stable-isotope tracing and respirometry measurements to identify pharmaceutical or dietary interventions to correct/exploit metabolic dysfunctions.

Victor Wenze Zhong, PhD; Assistant Professor. The Zhong Lab is working to design a coherent program of interdisciplinary research spanning nutrition, epidemiology, omics, and informatics to help prevent cardiometabolic diseases.

in the news:

• Study: Red meat, processed meat hike heart disease risk

• A genome-wide association study of bitter and sweet beverage consumption
• Why do people love coffee and beer? It's the buzz, not the taste, study finds
• Beverage preferences hinge on psychoactive effects: study
• Associations of Dietary Cholesterol or Egg Consumption With Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality
• Should you be eating eggs?
• Three or more eggs a week increase your risk of heart disease and early death, study says
• Study Links Eggs to Higher Cholesterol and Risk of Heart Disease
• Eggs May Be Bad for the Heart, a New Study Says - But There's More to the Story