Education
- Ph.D., Food Science and Technology, Texas A&M University
- M.Sc., Food Technology, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima, Peru
- B.Sc., Food Science, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima, Peru
Biography
Research Focus
My laboratory has the research focus on the role of nutrition in the prevention or progress of obesity-related chronic diseases. We investigate food bioactive compounds with the main goal of uncovering the molecular mechanisms by which diet derived compounds interact with the genome (effect on gene and protein expression and biomarkers) to shift the onset or outcome of disease. Research projects are centered around:
- Milk and dairy-derived bioactive compounds
- Plant food botanicals
We use in vitro and in vivo models to understand the complexity of nutrient-gene regulation and protein expression and the interdependence of biological systems with the main goal of understanding how food, nutrition, and health are interrelated.
Projects include basic research to understand how non-nutrient compounds in foods can interact with cell molecular pathways to modulate disease progression. The applications include cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic-inflammatory diseases. Special emphasis is on projects that aim the investigation of gut microbiota modulation by dietary compounds and probiotics and the relationship with inflammation and fat metabolism as an approach to develop microbial community profiles in the colon that are beneficial to human health.