Faculty

Michele La Merrill

  • Associate Professor
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Toxicology
Dr. Michele La Merrill studies the developmental basis of environmental disease. Her group is particularly interested in understanding susceptibilities to disease that may result from environmental insults during development, from poor diet and ensuing metabolic diseases, and from genetic and epigenetic predispositions.
4245 Meyer Hall

Guodong Zhang

  • Assistant Professor
  • Assistant Nutritionist in AES
Dr. Zhang's research seeks to elucidate the molecular mechanisms for the health effects of dietary and/or environmental compounds, in order to better understand their metabolic individualities, address inter-individual susceptibilities, and clarify their health effects.
3209 Meyer Hall | Labs: 3407 Meyer Hall

Ryan G Snodgrass, Ph.D

  • Research Molecular Biologist, USDA ARS WHNRC
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor
Dr. Snodgrass's research is focused on understanding how diet and nutritional and metabolic status shape innate immune function. Active research areas include: 1) investigating how metabolic status influences innate immune cell frequencies and phenotypes; 2) investigating the impact of diet and stress on cardiovascular risk factors and innate immune cell phenotypes; 3) investigating how microbiota-derived metabolites, which can be influenced by our diet, contribute to innate immune cell function.

Cassandra J. Nguyen, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension
Dr. Nguyen's long-term goal is to bridge the gap between "what we know" and "what we do" about food insecurity in the U.S. Her research broadly aligns with one of three areas: 1) supporting the implementation, evaluation, and effectiveness of Extension and nutrition education programming; 2) revitalizing local food systems to increase diet quality and wellbeing among Native communities and families; and 3) integrating food insecurity screening into healthcare services to better address chronic diseases.
3149 Meyer Hall

Dragan Milenkovic, Ph.D.

  • Associate Researcher, Department of Nutrition
Dr. Milenkovic’s research aims to demonstrate impact of nutrients on development and prevention of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and to identify molecular and cellular mechanisms of actions underlying observed effects using multi-genomic and bioinformatic approaches. In the last 10 years his research has been particularly focused on protective effects of bioactive plant compounds, mainly polyphenols.

Bess Caswell , Ph.D

  • Assistant Adjunct Professor, USDA ARS WHNRC
Dr. Caswell's research interests are in dietary assessment and analysis methods and food-based nutrition interventions. Her work incorporates nutritional epidemiology, community-based nutrition research and controlled dietary studies conducted at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center.

Baback (Bob) Roshanravan, M.D., M.S.P.H., M.S.

Dr. Roshanravan is is focused on patient-oriented research studying the links between altered metabolism in chronic kidney disease with muscle function, physical functioning, and frailty. His current research employs metabolic imaging and live tissue analysis of mitochondrial biochemistry to assess the impact of lifestyle and pharmacologic therapies on improving muscle performance, metabolism and physical function in vulnerable persons with chronic kidney disease. He is currently funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to investigate the impact of home-based exercise and treatment of metabolic acidosis on muscle metabolism and physical endurance among persons with CKD. As an investigator in the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory he leads an interdisciplinary team of investigators across UC Davis, California State University Sacramento, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center, 4860 Y St., Sacramento, Nephrology, Suite 0200

Roberta Holt, Ph.D.

  • Associate Research Nutritionist, Department of Nutrition
Dr. Holt’s research includes understanding the impact of dietary components and whole foods on cardiovascular physiology. Specifically, how these foods/dietary components affect metabolic pathways, and in turn, alter physiological outcomes such as vascular function and platelet reactivity.

Maria Marco, Ph.D.

  • Professor, Department of Food Science and Technology
Dr. Marco’s research is focused on understanding how certain microorganisms benefit human health. This interest encompasses fermented foods, probiotics, other ‘biotic categories, and the human microbiome. Studies on these topics range from clinical trials to molecular mechanistic inquiries on the genetic, biochemical, and ecological basis for microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions in foods and the digestive tract. Her lab is particularly focused on lactic acid bacteria but also uses a range of microbiome-directed methods to study microbial communities.
3200 Robert Mondavi Institute - South

Jennifer T. Smilowitz, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension
  • Department of Nutrition
Dr. Smilowitz is an Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension in the Department of Nutrition at UC Davis. She holds a doctoral degree in Nutritional Biology with an emphasis in Endocrinology and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Food Science & Technology at UC Davis. She has a well-established research career in clinical nutrition and lactation research that targets health in the first 1000 days from pregnancy through early childhood. Diet, environment, and lifestyle during these life stages have long-term consequences on health across generations. As a lactation education counselor, Dr. Smilowitz built a multi-collaborative outreach program focused on infant feeding that educates families on lactation and breastfeeding. Dr. Smilowitz's current research and outreach programs focus on critical issues that identify and address gaps in health equity across the lifespan, support community health and reduce chronic disease risk. She leads the ORIANE Lab, which leverages multi-disciplinary and multi-prong approaches to improve community health by 1) implementing and testing evidence-based nutrition interventions; 2) creating educational programs on nutrition and health using multimedia to empower families, especially from racially diverse, low-income communities; and 3) delivering professional training on nutrition-related topics to health care providers, community professionals, educators, and advocates.
3150D Meyer Hall | Lab: 3150H Meyer Hall