Nutrient-Gene Interactions in Health and Disease

Naïma Moustaïd-Moussa, Ph.D. is associate professor of nutrition at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. She earned her B.S. in cell biology and physiology and her Ph.D. in endocrinology from the University of Paris in 1989. After a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular nutrition with emphasis on mechanisms of insulin regulation of lipogenic gene expression at Harvard School of Public Health, she joined the faculty at the Department of Nutrition at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1993. She is a member of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and the American Association for Nutritional Sciences, where she serves on the program planning committee and as a current chair of the nutrient-gene interactions research interest section. Her current research interests include the role of the endocrine function of adipocytes in obesity, nutritional and hormonal regulation of adipocyte gene transcription, and lipogenesis in humans. Her research has been funded by the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, and the USDA. Carolyn D. Berdanier, Ph.D. is professor emeritus at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA. She earned a B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University in 1966. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Paul Griminger at Rutgers, she served as a research nutritionist with the Nutrition Institute-Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1975 she moved to the College of Medicine, University of Nebraska where she continued her research on nutrient-gene interactions. In 1977 she went to the University of Georgia where she served as head of the department of foods and nutrition. After 11 years she stepped down to pursue her interest in nutrient-gene interactions full time. Her research has been supported by NIH, USDA, and various commodity groups. She is a member of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the American Diabetes Association, and several honorary societies. She has served on the editorial bords of the Journal of Nutrition , FASEB Journal , Nutrition Research , and Biochemical Archives . Current research interests include studies on the role of nutrients in the control of mitochondrial gene expression.