Farrukh Aqil, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine. He received his doctorate in Microbiology from and has extensive experience of over 12 years in phytochemistry, microbiology, cancer biology and cancer prevention. Prior to moving to the as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Cancer Chemoprevention Group, he has a faculty in the Department of Biotechnology, .

His research focus is on cancer chemoprevention primarily of breast, lung and ovarian cancers using both standard chemotherapeutic drugs and agents from natural origin like berries. In the last few years his focus has been to evaluate the effectiveness of selected berries against lung cancer. In another project he has focused on chemopreventive efficacy and mechanisms of whole berry and spice powder against breast cancer. He has developed analytical techniques for tissue and plasma distribution of bioactive principles. Finally, he is developing novel combinatorial approaches for the treatment of lung and ovarian cancer by testing natural agents and standard chemo drugs using drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cancer cells.

More recently, he has played a key role in the development of polymeric implants for continuous systemic and local delivery of drugs, a technology which has fetched several patents. Another upcoming drug delivery technology in which he has also played a key role is based on biocompatible exosomes for delivery of small molecules and siRNAs. He has participated in many conferences and presented his work in the form of 60 abstracts/oral presentations. Dr. Aqil has authored or co-authored over 45 articles in peer reviewed journals, has 12 book chapters and has edited 4 books. He is an as associate editor in International Research Journal of Microbiology and serves as peer reviewer for more than 30 journals.

Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, PhD is Professor of Clinical Nutrition and cooperating Graduate Faculty, School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Maine. She is also cooperating professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at Harokopio University, Athens, Greece and at the Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Milan, Italy. She received her MS in Human Physiology and PhD in Nutrition Science from the Pennsylvania State University and did post-doctoral training at the Department of Physiological Chemistry, University of Cologne, Germany and the University of Cologne Hospital.

Dr. Klimis-Zacas has been involved in biomedical research exploring the role of trace minerals and dietary bioactives on chronic diseases such as Obesity, Cardiovascular Disease and the Metabolic Syndrome including basic and clinical investigations. Her applied investigations involve cross-cultural studies that utilize dietary interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk in populations both in the United States and the Mediterranean region.

Her past studies have documented the beneficial role of wild blueberries on vascular function, structure and metabolism in normotensive and hypertensive states. Her recent investigations examine the role of wild blueberries on attenuating co-morbidities associated with the Metabolic Syndrome such as Obesity-induced inflammation, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance as well as gene expression related to the above.

Dr. klimis-Zacas was awarded a senior Fulbright Fellowship to the Hellenic School of Public Health, Athens, Greece where she was involved in the Pan European Project EPIC (European Perspective study Into Cancer) and received two Fulbright Specialist awards to the University of Milan, Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences. Additionally, Dr. klimis-Zacas was the recipient of the prestigious Fondazione Cariplo Fellowship to lead research on the use of biosensors in exploring dietary approaches for degenerative disease prevention at the University of Milan.

Dr. Klimis-Zacas is the editor of “Manganese in Health and Disease”, ‘Nutritional Concerns for Women”, and has acted as editor-in-chief of “Annual Editions in Nutrition” and member of several editorial boards including the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry and Council member of the International Society of Trace Mineral Research in Humans (ISTERH). Dr. Klimis-Zacas is a member of many professional societies dedicated to promoting health and preventing disease including The American Society for Nutrition, The International Atherosclerosis Society, The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, The Italian Society of Nutrition, The Hellenic Dietetic Association and many others.

Daniele Del Rio is Associate Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Parma. He is running the Laboratory of Phytochemicals in Physiology at the Department of Food Science and is the co-founder of the LS9 “Bioactives & Health” Interlaboratory Group, where the biological activity of human and microbiota derived phytochemical metabolites represents one of the core research topics. Daniele is an Honorary Visiting Scholar at the UK Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research Unit in Cambridge, a Visiting Fellow of the Wolfson College, University of Cambridge and a senior collaborator of the Need for Nutrition Education/Innovation Programme (NNEdPro), an independent knowledge generation and research platform overseen by the British Dietetic Association. Dan is also the Commissioned Reviews Editor of the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (the official Journal of the British Dietetics Association) and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the University Spin-Off “Madegus”, focused on Nutritional Education for Children.
Daniele has been recently listed among the Thomson-Reuters Highly Cited Researchers. His publications could be retrieved at Google Scholar and Researcher ID

Professor Williams is Chair of Neuroscience in the School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, UK. She received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Reading in 2000. Her research group, the Nutritional Psychology laboratory, investigates the health benefits of plant-derived chemicals. The main focus of her laboratory is the interplay between dietary intake and measures of psychological well-being such as cognitive performance, food preference, mood, and quality of life using a wide range of techniques (e.g. animal studies, randomised controlled trials, neuroimaging) and population groups (e.g., school-aged children, healthy adults, older adults, patients with mild cognitive impairment). The group have published a number of articles including a demonstration that improvements in spatial working memory induced by a high flavonoid diet can be linked to de novo protein synthesis in rat hippocampus, flavonoid supplementation is associated with increased cerebral blood perfusion in healthy older adults, and that single acute doses of blueberries can significantly improve memory and attention in children aged 8-10 years old. She has published more than fifty peer-reviewed research articles, four book chapters and four patents.

Cheatham Nutrition & Cognition Lab, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Nutrition Research Institute, Kannapolis

Dr. Cheatham is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist and a member of the Nutrition & Brain Development Team at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) on the North Carolina Research Campus. At the NRI, Dr. Cheatham is studying the effects of nutrients (e.g., fatty acids, choline, iron, zinc, antioxidants) on the development and functioning of the hippocampus and frontal lobes, brain structures that are integral to the formation and retrieval of memories and to higher-order cognition. She uses both cognitive testing and an electrophysiological technique known as event-related potentials in her work with adults, as well as behavioral assessments in her studies with children.

Dr. Cheatham earned her Ph.D. in Child Psychology with an emphasis in Neuroscience in September 2004 at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (rated number one in the nation by US News & World Report) with Patricia Bauer and Megan Gunnar, both internationally renowned in their field. During her tenure at the Institute, she studied the development of memory and attention with Dr. Bauer, while simultaneously studying the effects of stress and social support on memory development with Dr. Gunnar.

She first became interested in the interplay between nutrition and brain development during her work with the chair of her dissertation committee, Dr. Michael Georgieff, a leading neonatologist who studies the effects of iron intake on brain development. Even though her dissertation did not have a nutrition component, the mentoring she received from Dr. Georgieff was invaluable for the understanding of the effects of nutrition on the brain. In addition, she began to appreciate the value of interdisciplinary ventures and came away with a desire to seek collaborative opportunities that cross traditional lines. She subsequently accepted a position on an interdisciplinary project at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) exploring the effects of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fatty acid, on cognitive development. Dr. Cheatham views interdisciplinary work as a pathway to a cohesive picture of brain development and functioning.

In her recent research, Dr. Cheatham hypothesizes that DHA’s effects on the ability of the brain to process information or even the ability of the brain to utilize DHA when it is present may be differentially affected by background diet (e.g., the total fat composition of the diet) and the organism’s history (e.g., expression of genes). She is assessing the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on declarative memory using behavioral and electrophysiological (event-related potential) paradigms. Important to her work at the Nutrition Research Institute is the ability to classify participants by single nucleotide polymorphisms (snp) in genes that are involved in the fatty acid metabolism process and are possibly introducing a confound into the data as people of a certain genotype metabolize fatty acids more readily than others.

Dr. Cheatham’s goal is to elucidate factors surrounding hippocampal development in children and senescence in adults. She believes that a focus on the nutritional aspect of brain research is key to discovering possible interventions that would help improve brain development and slow cognitive decline, giving every child and adult a chance to maximize their own cognitive abilities.

Post navigation
← D

Aedin Cassidy was appointed to a personal Chair in Nutrition in 2004. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of plant bioactives on cardiometabolic health.

She completed her PhD and post-doctoral work at Cambridge University. Prior to joining UEA she was Head of Molecular Nutrition in the Biosciences Division of Unilever Research, UK. She has been awarded the Nutrition Society Medal (1999), ‘Outstanding Contribution to Research’ in Tokyo, Japan for contribution to isoflavone research (2008), Finalist, Times Higher Education Awards for ‘International Collaboration of the Year’ 2013, awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution to Clinical research on Flavonoids’ at the International Conference on Polyphenols, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2013). She was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2013 and is listed on Highly Cited Researchers.

She 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.

Education: PhD, Nutrition & Food Sciences, Texas Woman’s University (2005); Postdoctoral training, UC Davis Medical Center; Registered Dietitian (RD);faculty appointment in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Oklahoma State University (OSU) since 2006. Currently, Associate Professor of Nutritional Sciences, OSU

Awards received: Marguerite Scruggs Award for meritorious early career research in Nutritional Sciences, Oklahoma State University (2009); Best Poster Award (2008 & 2013) American College of Nutrition (ACN) annual conference; Best Poster Award (2005 & 2006) American Society for Nutrition (ASN) annual conference; 58 peer-reviewed original research publications and abstracts.

My teaching and research interests focus on the role of functional foods and phytochemical-based nutraceuticals in reducing risks and complications of diabetes and related cardiovascular conditions. My research group conducts controlled human intervention studies on food and beverages of medicinal health effects such as, green tea, berries, and pomegranate extracts in participants with the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. We are specifically interested in examining effects on traditional and emerging biomarkers in the clinical progression of diabetes and CVD as modulated by functional foods and phytochemicals.