Current research area includes evaluating the impact of Nutrition and Food Safety Education Programs among limited resource audiences.
Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms by which diet modulates host-microbiome interaction, e.g., aryl hydrocarbon signaling cascades and genomic responses in relation to stem cell biology; noninvasive biomarkers using host exfoliomics and gut microbial metagenomics; membrane therapy and proteolipid nanoclustering; dietary interactions, colon cancer and chronic inflammation. Chapkin Laboratory.
Obesity & postmenopausal breast cancer: Studying the relationship between obesity, menopause, weight gain and inflammation, and their combined effects on (1) breast cancer development/progression and (2) metabolic health.
Giles Lab.
Mechanisms of insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, and associated cardiac disorders, aiming at nutritional and therapeutic intervention.
Application of randomized trial, systematic review, meta-analysis and guideline recommendation methods to a wide range of areas, with particular interests dietary guideline methodology.
Community-based nutrition and physical activity intervention research, AgriLife Research administrative leadership for social and behavioral intervention research initiatives, and Healthy Texas community health research director.
Dr. Sun is an expert on “hunger hormone” ghrelin. She generated the first ghrelin knockout mice, and discovered ghrelin’s novel roles in diabetes, thermogenesis and macrophage polarization. Her laboratory uses state-of-the-art tools to study ghrelin in energy sensing, intake and expenditure. Their work suggests that ghrelin might be a promising drug target for obesity, diabetes, aging, inflammation and cancer.
Dr. Threadgill’s laboratory uses the mouse as an experimental genetic model to investigate factors that contribute to inter-individual differences in health and disease. Current research activities include the role of genetic variation in response to environmental stimuli, with diet being the major environmental factor under study. Threadgill Lab.
Elucidate the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of obesity and overnutrition-associated metabolic diseases including insulin resistance, diabetes, and fatty liver disease.
Dr. Linglin Xie, research has been focused on understanding the molecular basis of obesity and insulin resistance. Her recent study focus is to find out if and how different maternal diet intervention before pregnancy would prevent the downstream offspring. She is also interested in understanding how maternal obesity or diabetes increase the risk of congenital heart defects of the baby.