Heidi Vanden Brink

2012-present American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) Board Certification in Obstetrical and Gynecological Ultrasound.

Dr. Vanden Brink holds over a decade of clinical research experience in nutrition, metabolic health, and female human reproductive physiology and endocrinology. Her research expertise spans the women’s reproductive lifespan from menarche to menopause. Outside of the office, Dr. Vanden Brink enjoys spending time with her goldendoodle and husband, and cycling.

I am building an interdisciplinary, translational research program that intersects nutrition, metabolism, and reproductive physiology and is guided by the overarching aim: to detect, understand, and prevent the integrative mechanisms responsible for aberrant reproductive development during the adolescent reproductive transition. The transition through puberty and the early post-menarcheal years, (termed the adolescent reproductive transition) represents a critical window of development which, when perturbed, can result in lifelong reproductive and metabolic dysfunction and reduced quality of life. My research program focuses on the critical window of development during the peri-menarcheal years. We are particularly interested in understanding how dietary intake as well as metabolic conditions associated with obesity influence reproductive development in adolescence leading to conditions such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

Potential doctoral students with an interest in human nutrition and clinical research methods are encouraged to contact Dr. Vanden Brink directly for more information.