Dr. Adam Drewnowski

2019 Berry Sessions Presentation Title – Berry Nutrient Density Research Project – Nutrient profiling models that incorporate flavonoids put berries on top

Prof. Dr. Adam Drewnowski is the Director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington. He obtained his MA degree in biochemistry at Balliol College, Oxford University, and PhD in psychology at The Rockefeller University in New York. He is the author of the Nutrient Rich Foods Index (NRF), a nutrient profiling model, that measures nutrient density of individual foods, meals and composite food patterns. The concept of nutrient density, captured by the NRF index, helps consumers identify foods that are nutrient rich, affordable, and appealing and have a low impact on the environment. Most recently Dr. Drewnowski has worked on Future 50 foods for healthier people and a healthier planet. Dr. Drewnowski is also the PI of the Seattle Obesity Study (SOS) , funded by the National Institutes of Health. The SOS has explored the socioeconomic determinants of health, focusing on access to healthy foods. Using geographic information systems data and geopositioning tracking devices, the SOS has explored where people shop, what they buy, and how their food purchases affect their health and well being. Dr. Drewnowski has authored over 300 research publications. He advises governments, foundations, and the private sector on issues related to diets and health.

Dr. Carl Keen

2019 Presentation Title – Effects of Short-Term Consumption of Strawberry Powder on Parameters of Vascular Health in Adolescent Males

Dr. Keen has been a member of the nutrition faculty at the University of California, Davis since 1981. He was the Chairman of the Department of Nutrition from 1993 to 2006, and he was the Interim Director of the University of California, Davis, Foods for Health Institute from 2006-2007. Dr. Keen has over 650 peer reviewed scientific publications. He has won several awards including the American Institute of Nutrition Bio-Serv Award (1985), and the American Institute of Nutrition Research Award (1995), and the McCormick Science Institute Research Award (2014). In 2002, he was recognized by the Institute of Scientific Information as a highly cited researcher in the Agricultural Sciences, and in 2004 he was recipient of the Teratology Society’s Warkany Award for research accomplishments in developmental biology.

In 2006, he was appointed as the first holder of the Mars Family Endowed Chair in Developmental Nutrition. He has served on numerous government boards and panels, and editorial boards. Dr. Keen’s current research is focused in two areas; the investigation of the influence of maternal diet on the risk for pregnancy complications (maternal and conceptus) and the influence of diet on the risk for age-related chronic diseases. Regarding the influence of diet on embryonic and fetal development, his research group has been studying the acute and long-term consequences of micronutrient deficiencies on embryonic and fetal development for almost three decades. The majority of their efforts has centered on the characterization of the effects of primary and secondary mineral deficiencies on the developing vascular system and brain. Regarding the influence of diet and chronic disease, for the last couple of decades, the laboratory group has focused on the study of dietary factors that influence the risk for vascular disease. This includes the cardiovascular health benefits associated with plant food rich diets that is attributed to their flavanol content.

Dr. Hang Xiao

2019 Presentation Title – Promoting Colon Health by Berries: the Case Studies of Strawberry and Cranberry

Dr. Hang Xiao obtained his Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and had a post-doctoral training at the Rutgers University. Currently, Dr. Xiao is an Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts. His long-term research goal is to develop food-based strategies for the prevention of major chronic diseases in humans such as colitis and colon cancer. Currently, Dr. Xiao is working on identifying potential disease preventive food components, and elucidating their molecular mechanisms.

Dr. Xiao has published more than 180 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and his research has been supported by funds from NIH, USDA, NASA, and NAS. Dr. Xiao has received multiple research awards such as Fellow of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division of American Chemical Society (ACS), Mary Swartz Rose Young Investigator Award from American Society for Nutrition (ASN), and Samuel Cate Prescott Research Award from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), and International life Science Institute (ILSI) North America Future Leader Award. Dr. Xiao serves as the Associate Editor of Food & Function, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, and Journal of Food Science.

Meijun Zhu, PhD

2019 Presentation Title – Dietary Raspberry Induces Browning of White Adipose Tissue via AMPK

Dr. Meijun Zhu is an Associate Professor in the School of Food Science at Washington State University. She earned her BS and MS in Biochemistry at China Agricultural University, and her PhD in Food Microbiology from Iowa State University. She worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Animal Physiology at University of Wyoming for three years. She joined WSU as an Assistant Professor in 2012 and was promoted to an Associate Professor in 2015. Her research focuses on molecular nutrition, particularly on impacts of food bioactive compounds on gut microbiota, intestinal epithelial health and metabolic disorders. She has published more than 190 peer-reviewed papers with H-index at 45. Her program has been well funded by USDA, NIH and commodity groups.

Louise Dye, PhD

2019 Presentation Title – The Effects of Berry Polyphenols on Cognitive Function in Adults in the Context of Other Plant Based Ingredients: An ILSI Europe Systematic Review

Louise Dye is Professor of Nutrition and Behaviour and leads the Nutrition and Behaviour Group, in the Human Appetite Research Unit in the School of Psychology, University of Leeds. Louise is Academic Lead for the University of Leeds of the HEFCE catalyst funded N8 Agrifood Programme. The N8 Agrifood Programme brings together expertise across the 8 research intensive universities in the North of England in agriculture, food production and supply in a changing environment with a global reach. In her N8 role, Louise is interested in how to encourage and sustain dietary behaviour change at individual, organisational and societal levels, linking to global issues of food production/supply, inequality and health.

Professor Dye is a member of the BBSRC Strategy Board for Biosciences for Health and of BBSRC’s Diet and Health Research Industry club (DRINC) Steering Group. She has held MRC and Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellowships in the UK and Europe and an EU funded Marie Curie Professorial Fellowship in Jena, Germany. Professor Dye is a Chartered Health Psychologist and British Psychological Society member. She began her career in Human Psychopharmacology and has over 30 years’ experience in the assessment of nutritional and pharmacological intervention on cognitive function and wellbeing. She is Associate Editor of Nutritional Neuroscience and the European Journal of Nutrition and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the FP7 project “PREVIEW” which is aimed at the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Her research interests include functional foods for wellbeing, stress management, mental health and cognitive performance/decline and in altered metabolic states such as obesity and type 2 diabetes as well as genetic disorders such as PKU and Cystic Fibrosis. She is interested in the modification of glycaemic response by diet and the impact of food on stress and wellbeing, and has developed an experimental technique to permit repeated stress induction.

Louise has published influential systematic reviews of the effects of breakfast on cognitive and academic performance and the effects of polyphenols on cognition. Her work on polyphenols includes a recent study of Concord grape juice which demonstrated enduring effects of Concord grape on cognitive and driving performance. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ILSI Europe and has served on 5 of their expert groups including Natural (plant based) Ingredients and Cognitive Function.

Dr. André Marette

2019 Presentation Title – Blueberry Anthocyanins and Proanthocyanins Improve Insulin Sensitivity in Diet-Induced Obese Mice Through Their Impact on the Gut Microbiota.

Dr. Marette is Professor of Medicine at the Heart and Lung Institute, Laval Hospital, and Scientific Director of the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods at Laval University. He holds a research Chair on the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Dr. Marette is an international renowned expert on the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and cardiometabolic diseases and his research has advanced the understanding of the physiological and molecular mechanisms of inflammation, and opened new possibilities for prevention and treatment and type 2 diabetes and CVD. He is also studying how nutrition and food ingredients can modulate the gut microbiota to protect against obesity-linked intestinal inflammation, fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Marette has published over 220 papers, reviews and book chapters and was invited to give more than a hundred lectures at various national & international conferences in the last 10 years. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Am J Physiol: Endo & Metab. and has authored two books in the last few years, one entitled La Vérité sur le Sucre edited by VLB and one entitled Yogurt: Roles in Nutrition and Impacts on Health, edited by CRC press. Dr. Marette has received several awards for his work including the prestigious Charles Best Award and Lectureship from the University of Toronto for his overall contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the field of diabetes.

Dr. Sarah A. Johnson

2019 Presentation Title – Blueberries for Attenuating Age-Related Vascular Dysfunction: Evidence and Opportunities

Sarah A. Johnson, PhD, RDN is Assistant Professor and Director of the Functional Foods & Human Health Laboratory in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University. Her research program aims to integrate multiple disciplines including nutrition, food, agricultural, and biomedical sciences to perform translational research studies focused on critically examining the efficacy and mechanisms by which functional foods, namely flavonoid-rich berries, improve cardiovascular disease risk factors and attenuate vascular dysfunction in high-risk aging populations. Current work focuses on clinical efficacy of blueberries and aronia berries to attenuate age-related vascular dysfunction, and underlying mechanisms responsible for clinical efficacy and physiological effects in general.

Dr. Johnson has received honors and awards such as the Emerging Leaders Network Award from the Institute of Food Technologists, the Abbott Nutrition Award in Women’s Health from the Academy, the Junior Faculty Author Award from the Research Dietetic Practice Group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and the Clinical Emerging Leader Award from the Medical Nutrition Council of the American Society for Nutrition. She is on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Medicinal Food. She is a Member of the Council on Research and Past Chair of the Evidence-Based Practice Committee with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Aedin Cassidy, PhD

2019 Presentation Title – The Impact of Blueberries on Cardiometabolic Health in Participants with Metabolic Syndrome – Results from a 6-Month Trial

Aedin Cassidy is Head of the Dept. of Nutrition & Preventive Medicine at Norwich Medical School. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of plant bioactives on cardiometabolic health with current research focusing on anthocyanins, the microbiome and cardiovascular health. She was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2013 and has served on various committees and expert panels including RAE2008 and REF2014. She is a Fellow of the Society for Biology and the Royal Society of Chemistry. She is a visiting scientist at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

Franck Carbonero, PhD

2019 Presentation Title – Impact of Cranberry Juice Consumption on Gut and Vaginal Microbiota in Post-Menopausal Women

Dr. Carbonero received his B.S. degree in Biology from Universite Joseph Fourier, France, his M.S. degree in Ecology from Universite Blaise Pascal, France and his Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for three years. He has served on the faculty (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Food Science at the University of Arkansas since 2013.

His research program is focused on nutrition and its impact on the human and animal gut microbiome, with focus on dietary bioactives. Dr. Carbonero has published 40 scientific articles and has delivered over 15 presentations at scientific meetings. He is an Academic Editor for Plos One and Editorial board member for 4 other journals.