UW-Madison Metabolism and Nutrition Training Program (MANTP) (NIH T32)

Faculty Trainer Research Descriptions

(Click the above link to download more detailed research descriptions.)

Rozalyn Anderson, PhD (Assoc. Prof. of Medicine). Metabolism of aging and delayed of aging by caloric restriction.

Alan Attie, PhD (Prof. of Biochemistry) studies the genetics and genomics of obesity-induced type 2 diabetes.

Vincent Cryns, MD (Prof of Medicine) studies metabolic stress and cancer, including nutritional interventions such as methionine restriction as novel therapeutic paradigms for cancer.

Dawn Davis, MD, PhD (Assoc. Prof. of Medicine) Changes in pancreatic beta cell gene expression in response to obesity and in the setting of beta cell proliferation.

John Denu, PhD (Prof. of Biomolecular Chemistry) investigates the biological function of acetylation and other reversible protein modifications modulating signal transduction, gene activation and intermediary metabolism.

David Eide, PhD (Prof of Nutritional Sciences) studies the mechanism of zinc uptake and homeostasis using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model for understanding these processes in humans.

Rick Eisenstein, PhD (Prof. of Nutritional Sciences) studies how erythropoiesis and iron metabolism are controlled and coordinated including how dysregulation of molecular sensors of iron and oxygen causes disease.

Corinne Engelmann, PhD (Assoc Prof of Population Health Sciences) Genetic, demographic, behavioral, physiological,and environmental correlates of vitamin D levels in the blood; association between vitamin D and other health outcomes, such as blood pressure and lipid concentrations.

Feyza Engin, PhD (Asst. Prof. of Biomolecular Chemistry) Understanding chronic inflammatory disease induced by diet and other factors. How bile-acids induce alterations of the gut microbiome in type 1 diabetes; dysregulation of sphingolipid homeostasis in dietary- or genetically-induced models of type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Luke Funk, MD (Assoc. Prof. of Surgery) studies population-level health trends and health care disparities for adults with obesity. Our group uses quantitative and qualitative research methods (e.g. cost-effectiveness analyses) and conducts behavioral intervention clinical trials aimed at improving decision-making for adults with obesity.

James Gern, MD (Prof. of Medicine) studies how respiratory viruses and other environmental exposures including vitamin D metabolism and food allergies affect the onset of allergic diseases and asthma.

Guy Groblewski, PhD (Prof. of Nutritional Sciences) studies the molecular mechanisms of membrane trafficking events in digestive epithelial cells of the pancreas and how their dysregulation leads to pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.

Laura Hernandez, PhD (Asst. Prof of Dairy Sciences) is focused on the ability of the autocrine and paracrine factors in the mammary gland to coordinate maternal metabolism during lactation.

Michelle Kimple, PhD (Asst. Prof. of Medicine) is elucidating how dysfunctional G protein-coupled receptor signaling contributes to the pathogenesis of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and using this information to improve treatments.

HuiChuan Lai, PhD (Prof. of Nutritional Sciences) studies how nutrition affects the onset and progression of pediatric chronic diseases including cystic fibrosis (CF), asthma, and obesity.

Dudley Lamming, PhD (Asst. Prof of Medicine) Protein regulation of cellular processes that affect growth, metabolism, and aging.

Kristen Malecki, PhD (Asst. Prof. of Pop. Health) – Diet, inflammation, gut microbiome and epigenetics.

Julie Mares, PhD (Prof. of Opthal./Visual Sci.) conducts epidemiological studies on retinal biomarkers for carotenoids and other nutritional factors preserving vision and cognitive function & serve as markers of persons at risk for decline.

Matthew Merrins, PhD (Asst. Prof of Medicine and Biomolecular Chemistry) Ability of pancreatic islet beta cells to trigger cell proliferation and release of insulin during periods of increased insulin needs.

Joshua Mezrich, MD (Assoc. Prof. of Surgery) transplant tolerance and how environmental exposures including diet alter the immune system.

Brian Parks, PhD (Asst. Prof. of Nutritional Sciences) studies how interactions between genetics and diet contribute to obesity and diabetes.

Joseph F. Pierre, PhD (Asst. Prof of Nutritional Sciences), PhD., 2012. Research on the gut microbiome, nutrition, and intestinal physiology and disease.

J. Wesley Pike, PhD (Prof. of Biochemistry) Transcriptional mechanisms of steroid hormone action, particularly vitamin D, in the skeleton.

Scott Reeder, MD, PhD (Prof. of Radiology, Med. Eng. and Med. Physics) development of MRI methods for quantification of abdominal adiposity, liver fat, liver iron overload and other features of diffuse liver disease, hemodynamics of portal hypertension, and the use of new contrast agents in liver and biliary diseases.

Federico Rey, PhD (Asst Prof of Bacteriology) Microbe-nutrient interactions and cardiometabolic disease.

William Schrage, PhD (Prof of Kinesiology) Human cardiovascular control during exercise or environmental stress, focused on the impact of obesity and insulin resistance on blood flow regulation to skeletal muscle and brain.

Sherry Tanumihardjo, PhD (Prof. of Nutritional Sciences) studies methods for vitamin A assessment and carotenoid bioavailability emphasizing provitamin A carotenoids in staple crops to improve vitamin A status world-wide

Amy Trentham-Dietz, PhD (Prof. of Pop. Health Sciences) Diet and other modifiable risk factors in cancer prevention.

Jan Peter Van Pijkeren, PhD (Prof of Food Sciences) Understanding probiotic mechanisms towards the development of next-generation probiotics

Corrine Voils, PhD (Prof. of Surgery) Research focus on identifying behavioral strategies to increase long-term weight loss

Eric Yen, PhD (Assoc Prof of Nutritional Sciences) Intestinal Lipid Processing and Systemic Metabolism