Project Leaders/Pilot and Seed Grant Recipients

Current Project Leaders

Current Pilot Projects

	Punita Dhawan Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Nebraska Medical Center	“Role of MASTL in Pancreatic Steatosis and associated diseases”
	Rebecca Oberley-Deegan Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Nebraska Medical Center	“Understanding the mechanism of obesity-induced radiation damage” (P01/Multiple PI pilot grant)

Current Seed Projects

	Micah Schott Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Nebraska Medical Center	“Microautophagy of Lipid Droplets by Endosomal Trafficking Mechanisms”
	Sasitharan Balasubramaniam School of Computing University of Nebraska-Lincoln	“Digital simulations and wet lab experimental platform for bacterial EV intercellular communications”
	Tomasz Bednarski Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences University of Nebraska-Lincoln	“The impact of obesity on satellite cells action in the skeletal muscle”
	Jaekwon Lee Biochemistry  University of Nebraska-Lincoln	“Protection against hepatic lipid toxicity by copper homeostasis”

Current Revision Grant

Xinghui Sun Department of Biochemistry University of Nebraska-Lincoln

“Novel roles of Matrin-3 in hepatic steatosis and acute phase response"

Former Project Leaders

Cohort 1 - August 2014 - May 2017	Project leader	Project title
	Justin Mott Biochemistry & Molecular Biology  University of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha More information about Justin Mott	“Palmitoleate Protects against Cholangiocyte Lipoapoptosis”
	Qiaozhu Su  now Queen’s Univ. Belfast  More information about Qiaozhu Su	“Redox signaling, endoplasmic reticulum stress, high-fat diet, and metabolic syndrome”
	Juan Cui Computer Science & Engineering University of Nebraska-Lincoln More information about Juan Cui	“Bioinformatics-guided Discovery of Dietary MicroRNA Signals in Obesity”
	Amanda Ramer-Tait Food Science & Technology University of Nebraska-Lincoln More information about Amanda Ramer-Tait	“Gut microbe signaling, epigenetics, and inflammatory processes”
	Soonkyu Chung now at School of Public Health & Health Sciences University of Massachusetts Amherst More information about Soonkyu Chung	“Regulation of White Adipocyte Browning by Dietary Fatty Acids”
Cohort 2 - June 2017 - May 2020
	Evi Farazi College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha More information about Evi Farazi	“Identification of metabolic biomarkers and signaling changes associated with obesity related hepatocellular carcinoma”
	Sathish Natarajan Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences University of Nebraska-Lincoln More information about Sathish Natarajan	“Palmitoleate protects against 3-hydroxy fatty acid-induced lipotoxicity to placenta and maternal liver during acute fatty liver of pregnancy”
	Xinghui Sun Department of Biochemistry University of Nebraska-Lincoln  More information about Xinghui Sun	“Endothelial long non-coding RNA Meg3, adipose tissue dysfunction, and obesity”
	Dustin Yates Department of Animal Science University of Nebraska-Lincoln More information about Dustin Yates	“Impact of maternal oxygen supplementation on adaptive metabolic dysfunction in IUGR fetuses”
	Jiujiu Yu Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences University of Nebraska-Lincoln More information about Jiujiu Yu	“Effects of grapefruit extracellular vesicle-like nanoparticles on NLRP3 inflammasome activation”

Former Pilot Project recipients:

Paras Kumar Mishra (UNMC): “Gut dysbiosis in diabetic cardiomyopathy” 2021
Rebekah Gundry (UNMC): “Glycan signatures as mechanistic markers of beta cell injury in diabetes” 2020-2021
Rohita Sinha (UNL, Food Science): “Computational method to select bioactive dietary-peptides inhibiting microbial pathways associated with obesity,” 2017-2019
Kaustav Majumder (Food Science, UNL)  2018-2019
Audrey Atkin (UNL, Biological Sciences) “Molecular characterization of human miRISC complexes following treatment with cow milk exosome” 2016-2018
Srivatsan Kidambi (UNL, Chem. Eng.)  2016-2017
Jiri Adamec (UNL, Biochemistry) 2015-2016
Samodha Fernando (UNL, Animal Science, 2015-2016

Former Seed Project recipients:

Amy Desaulniers (UNL): “Impacts of dietary milk exosome consumption on the testicular transcriptome” 2022
John S. Davis(UNMC): “Identification of metabolic pathways in ovarian steroidogenic tissues” 2021
Donald F. Becker (IANR/ARD): "Impact of obesity on proline energy metabolism in the mitochondrion” 2021
Ed Harris (IANR): “Contribution of copper in non-alcohol steatohepatitis” 2021
Oleh Khalimonchuk (IANR): "Mechanisms of Heme Transport and Distribution in Erythropoiesis” 2021
Dipti A. Dev (UNL): "SensiTray: Improving Feasibility and Validity in Children’s Dietary Assessment” 2021
Christopher R. Gustafson (IANR): “Health promotion in complex food choice environments: the effect of decision prompts on attention to products, nutrient information, and choice” 2021
Jaekwon Lee (UNL): "Mitigation of obesity and Hepatic steatosis by copper limitation" 2020-2021
Jennifer Auchtung (UNL): “Determining the role of bovine milk exosomes, a class of bioactive food compounds, in modulating the gastrointestinal microbiome and functional resistance to infection with Clostridioides difficile” 2020-2021
Seung-Hyun Ro (Biochemistry, UNL)  2019
Ann Anderson Berry (UNMC)  2019
Paul Thomes (UNMC) 2017-2018
Jiujiu Yu (Dept. of Nutrition and Health Sciences, UNL) Seed grant project: “Identification of microRNA in grapefruit extracellular vesicles and its target gene that reduce NLRP3 inflammasome activation” 2016-2017
Dustin Yates (Department of Animal Science, UNL),Seed Grant: “Identification of microRNA in grapefruit extracellular vesicles and its target gene that reduce NLRP3 inflammasome activation” 2016-2017
Sathish Natarajan (Dept. of Nutrition and Health Sciences, UNL), Seed grant: “Mechanism of 3-hydroxy fatty acid-induced placental trophoblast and hepatocyte lipoapoptosis” 2016 
Tara Nordgren (UNMC): “Role of dietary microRNAs on human macrophage function” 2016-2017
Jung Yul Lim (UNL, Mechan. Eng.): “Adipokine Mechanobiology for Insulin Signaling” 2016-2017
Jiujiu Yu (UNL, NHS): “Identification of microRNA in grapefruit extracellular vesicles and its target gene that reduce NLRP3 inflammasome activation” 2017
Audrey Atkin (UNL, Biological Sciences): “Molecular characterization of human miRISC complexes following treatment with cow milk exosome miRNAs” 2015-2016
Ed Harris/Cliff Stains (Biochemistry & Chemistry, UNL) 2015-2016

Revision Grant – Dr. Saraswathi Viswanathan (UNMC) “The role of TP-R on obesity-linked metabolic disorders” 2020