The Nutrition and Natural Products center is a multidisciplinary scientific hub that studies how nutrition and bioactive molecules shape health and disease. Researchers decode core mechanisms in vascular signaling (endothelial pathways and PUFA-derived lipid mediators that regulate vascular tone and blood pressure), immune modulation (sphingolipid signaling at the intersection of inflammation, obesity, cancer and metastasis), and molecular neurobiology (mRNA translation control, memory formation, neurodegeneration, and aging). In parallel, the center’s microRNA and transcriptomics expertise reveals regulatory networks that connect metabolic disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions, and supports the discovery of biomarkers in body fluids.
A major pillar is the center’s capability to generate high-resolution chemical and biological datasets—through GCMS/LCMS profiling, metabolomics, oxidative-stress readouts, and structural elucidation/synthesis—and then test hypotheses in robust experimental systems. This includes a dedicated pre-clinical unit supporting in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo studies, plus zebrafish-based platforms that enable efficient, mechanistically informative testing.
Alongside human-health research, the center also investigates sustainable nutrition biology (e.g., insects and fungi) as model systems to understand nutrient physiology, host–microbe interactions, and how diet composition affects growth, metabolism, and bioactivity.
