Dr. Mary Ann Lila
2023 Berries and the Skin Session Chair
Dr. Mary Ann Lila is a David H. Murdock Distinguished Professor and Director, Plants for Human Health Institute at North Carolina State University.
Over the past two decades, Dr. Lila’s research has centered on bioactive phytochemical constituents, particularly polyphenolic/flavonoid phytoactives, their capacity to mitigate immunosuppression and inflammation, and the differential efficacies that these compounds exert in individual human subjects. The primary emphases in her team are (1) rigorous structural characterization of phytochemicals and metabolites (2) elucidation of phytochemical interactions that potentiate benefits for human health maintenance and allergy attenutation, (3) development of functional ingredients that stabilize the bioactive properties of these otherwise ephemeral constituents, (4) individualized responses of subjects to phytoactive agents (tentatively as a consequence of their differential intestinal microbiota profiles, which condition the production of active catabolites), and (5) interpretation of the bioavailability/bioaccessibility of plant-derived metabolites.