Graduate Mentors
June 29, 2021
Catherine A. Peterson
Catherine Peterson, R.D.N., Ph.D. is a nutrition scientist and registered dietitian. She is an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology (NEP) at the University of Missouri. Peterson earned her PhD in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was a NIH Post-doctoral trainee in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Peterson has also worked as principal nutrition scientist for a major infant formula company. Her expertise is in the role of micronutrients and other dietary factors in disease prevention. She has published original research on the effects of…
June 29, 2021
Jaume Padilla
Dr. Jaume Padilla is a professor in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at the University of Missouri with a joint appointment at the Harry S. Memorial VA Hospital. His research program focuses on understanding the mechanisms linking metabolic and cardiovascular disease. A primary focus is the study of mechanisms causing endothelial insulin resistance and vascular dysfunction in the context of physical inactivity, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. A detailed understanding of the precipitating factors and mechanisms underlying the defects in vascular insulin actions is critical for the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at improving glycemic control and cardiovascular outcomes. Dr. Padilla’s research, funded…
June 29, 2021
Elizabeth J. Parks
Elizabeth Parks is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology and Department of Medicine, both in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri. She also serves as Associate Director of the Clinical Translational Science Unit and as an investigator in the university’s NextGen Precision Health Initiative. Her research focuses on understanding how the food we eat is processed in the body to benefit health and how it can also contribute to the progression of diseases such as obesity, pre-diabetes, and diabetes. The major research contributions of the Parks Lab emanate from the…
June 29, 2021
Jill Kanaley
Educational background Courses taught…
June 29, 2021
Craig Schenck
To deal with relentless environmental pressures, plants produce an arsenal of structurally diverse defensive chemicals. These sometimes-complex compounds are derived from much simpler building blocks from primary metabolic pathways. Unlike well-documented diversification of plant specialized metabolic enzymes, core metabolic pathways are highly conserved and evolutionarily constrained because they serve essential metabolic functions, which makes manipulation of these pathways difficult. The expansion and alteration of core metabolism has given rise to the evolution of structurally diverse plant specialized metabolites. However, the underlying mechanisms enabling metabolic diversity and the connections linking core to specialized metabolism are not well known. These…
Dec. 10, 2020
So-Yon Park
Host-Parasitic plant interaction is a fascinating model to study Plant-Plant interaction. Park is interested in how mobile RNAs and proteins are exchanged, transferred, and functional in other organisms through the host-parasite interaction. Cuscuta (stem parasitic plant) and Phelipanche (root parasitic plant) growing on Arabidopsis, tomato, and soybean are major parasites used in Park lab. We are also interested in how small RNAs are transported and suppress target genes under drought stress in soybeans. Educational Background B.S., Dankook University, South KoreaPh.D., Seoul National University, South Korea…
July 5, 2020
Michelle Brimecombe
Brimecombe’s interests are in sport management specifically related to the business side of sport, organizational behavior, player development, sport marketing, brand management and sport policy. Educational background Courses taught…
May 31, 2020
Olga J. Baker
May 17, 2020
David Braun
Carbohydrate partitioning is the process whereby photoassimilates are distributed from their site of synthesis in leaves to the rest of the plant. Control of carbohydrate partitioning is crucial for plant growth and development, and underlies all aspects of crop yield, including cellulose deposition in cell walls and sucrose accumulation in storage organs, such as the stems of sugarcane or sweet sorghum. For most plants, fixed carbon, in the form of sucrose, is loaded into the phloem and transported from leaves to non-photosynthetic tissues, such as stems, roots, and fruits. This process is well characterized at the physiological, biochemical, and…
Sep. 6, 2019
Lloyd W. Sumner
The research focus of the Sumner lab includes the development of cutting-edge technologies for large-scale biochemical profiling of plant metabolites (i.e. metabolomics) and integrating these with other omics data. These technologies are then applied in a symbiotic manner for plant gene discovery, gene characterization and the elucidation of mechanistic responses to external stimuli; especially related to plant specialized metabolism or plant natural products biosynthesis. Technology enables the biology and the biology drives technology development. Current technology development projects include the development of a sophisticated and integrated ensemble including UHPLC-MS-SPE-NMR for the systematic and biologically driven annotation of plant metabolomes.