UC Davis Nutrition Department students were the recipients of a number of awards in 2006. Outstanding undergraduate student Amanda (Nelson) Cooley (pictured at right) was awarded one of the 2006 Kristen Maxwell Memorial Awards. Amanda was a Nutrition Science major who graduated from UC Davis in 2006 after also completing the coursework for the Didactic Program in Dietetics. She will be completing her dietetic internship at UC Davis Medical Center. Amanda made significant contributions to the department in her position as peer advisor while also serving as a volunteer youth leader in her church.

Outstanding undergraduate student Satomi Oshima (pictured at left) was awarded both a 2006 Kristen Maxwell Memorial Award and a Prophet-Zeman Undergraduate Award. The Prophet-Zeman Undergraduate Award in Nutrition was established in honor of two people that spent their career working for UC Davis nutrition undergraduates and is awarded to outstanding undergraduate students majoring in Clinical Nutrition. Professor Emeritus Frances Zeman, who retired in 1991, was the major advisor for dietetics for 17 years and was a pioneer in the area of nutrition and fetal development. The late Joanne Prophet taught food service management for 22 years to thousands of dietetic majors.

Satomi, a Clinical Nutrition major who graduated in 2006, will be completing her dietetic internship at UC Berkeley. She is planning to obtain an advanced degree in either public health or sports nutrition with a goal of working internationally.

Corinne Elizabeth Allen (shown at right) was also awarded a Prophet-Zeman award this year. Corinne recently worked alongside UC Davis Nutrition Department faculty member Dr. Patricia Oteiza and researcher Gerardo Mackenzie on a zinc deficiency study. She is currently finishing her UC Davis degree while abroad at the University of Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In Argentina, Corinne is participating in a biochemical research project funded by the UC Davis International Internship Grant. In December, she will complete a major in Nutrition Science: Biochemical Nutrition and plans on continuing her education in International Public Health Nutrition. She aspires to conduct nutrition research in Latin America.

Outstanding undergraduate student Nicole Geurin (pictured at left), a Clinical Nutrition Major at UC Davis, was one of seven women to be selected this year for the Marion Freeborn Scholarship. This scholarship award has been given annually since 1938 to hand-selected women students who have exhibited outstanding academic performance, involvement in campus and community activities, and leadership. Nicole, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is in her third year at UC Davis.  She is currently the president of the Student Nutrition Association and a Nutrition and Fitness Education Promotion Intern for the Cowell Student Health Center.  She is also the defending Women’s AA Intramural Tennis Champion at UC Davis.  Her goal after graduation is to become a Registered Dietician and to help revolutionize America’s perspective on nutrition.

Staci Terrazas (pictured at right) was recently awarded a Marie Taubeneck Memorial Award. The Marie Weldon Taubeneck Memorial Award recognizes academic achievement of a student who has an interest in nutrition research and is planning to become a Registered Dietitian. The award was established in memory of Marie Weldon Taubeneck, a Registered Dietitian who received her Ph.D. from UC Davis in 1995. Marie worked as a clinical dietitian, and at the time of her death in 1998, was employed as a researcher in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition. Marie's family and friends established this award in her memory in recognition of Marie's passion for the profession of dietetics and her desire to assist other students in achieving their career goals to become Registered Dietitians.

Staci completed her bachelor's degree at UC Davis with a major in Clinical Nutrition and a minor in Biological Anthropology. During her time at UC Davis Staci founded and was Vice President of the UC Davis International Nutrition Club where she aided in organizing a charity concert attended by 300+ people to raise money for Save the Children. Staci was also very active in volunteer work and completed a number of internships while she was a student. She was a volunteer for Meals on Wheels and the Diaper Drive for Chicks in Crisis and worked as an intern at the Nutrition Services Division at the Department of Education, Families First, UC Davis Medical Center Cardiac Rehabilitation Center, and Shriner's Hosiptal for Children. Staci is currently completing her dietetic internship at the UC Davis Medical Center. Her goal is to work as a pediatric dietitian in the Northern California area.

On August 4, 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed UC Davis Nutrition Department Distinguished Professor, Carl L. Keen to a committee of the State Science Advisory Board of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). OEHHA is the lead agency for the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65). The Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant (DART) Identification Committee of OEHHA’s Science Advisory Board identifies chemicals for addition to the list of chemicals known to the State to cause reproductive toxicity, which is mandated by Health and Safety Code Section 25249.8. The Committee serves as the “State’s qualified experts” for determining whether a chemical has been clearly shown, through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles, to cause reproductive toxicity. Governor Schwarzenegger appointed 17 scientists to two committees of the state's Science Advisory Board, OEHHA, with more than half the appointees being affiliated with the University of California.

Carl Keen has been Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the University of California, Davis since 1993 and a Professor of Nutrition since 1981. He has served on numerous government boards. He has been a member of California’s Scientific Advisory Board for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment since 1993. He has been a member of EPA Environmental Health Grant Review Panels (1990-99), USDA Human Nutrient Requirements Study (1987-92), and several NIH panels (Nutrition Study Section 1997-99; ALTOX Study Section 2002-2004; XNDA Study Section 2004-present). He is past president of the California Nutrition Council (1998). He is a member of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences (ASNS), the American Society of Clinical Nutrition (ASCN), the Teratology Society, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (SEBM), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

He served on numerous editorial boards including Magnesium Research, Journal of Nutritional Immunology, Journal of Trace Elements in Experimental Medicine, Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Nutritional Neuroscience, and Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. Carl Keen was awarded the American Institute of Nutrition Graduate Student Research Award (1978), the American Institute of Nutrition Bio-Serv Award in Experimental Animal Nutrition (1985), Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (1985), and the American Institute of Nutrition Research Award (Borden Award, 1995). Keen was recently recognized by ILSI as a highly cited researcher in the Agricultural Sciences (2002), and he was the 2004 recipient of the Teratology Society’s Warkany Award for research accomplishments in developmental biology.

Dr. Keen’s research group has four main areas of activities. The first concerns the influence of diet on embryonic and fetal development. A major theme in his laboratory is that a significant proportion of birth defects are the consequence of embryonic and/or fetal malnutrition. Thus, the correction of nutritional deficiencies during early development should result in a marked reduction in pregnancy complications. A second research theme in his group is the study of gene-nutrient interactions, with an emphasis on how subtle changes in cell mineral concentrations influence the expression of select genes. The third major research theme in his laboratory is the study of how diet influences oxidant defense systems, and as a consequence the occurrence of cellular oxidative damage. The fourth research area concerns the influence of dietary flavonoids on vascular health. The above research themes are integrated, and approached through a combination of in vitro and in vivo models, including the study of human subjects.

Other appointees to the Development and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee included the following five UC affiliates:

- Ellen Gold, a professor in the department of health sciences at UC Davis. Previously, she was a professor and research assistant in the department of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University and a research assistant and associate for the UCLA School of Public Health. She is a member of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

- Calvin Hobel, vice chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Cedar Sinai Medical Center. Previously, he served as consulting staff at San Fernando Valley Presbyterian Hospital and at St. John's Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica. From 1967 to 1983, Hobel was chief of obstetrics at UCLA Medical Center. He is a member of the March of Dimes Scientific Advisory Committee on Prematurity and American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society.

- Kenneth Jones, a professor of pediatrics at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Previously, Jones served as a pediatrician in the U.S. Army. He is a member of the Teratology Society and American Academy of Pediatrics.

- Linda Roberts, a senior toxicologist at ChevronTexaco Energy Technology Co. Previously, she was a postdoctoral scientist in the division of reproductive and developmental toxicology at the National Center for Toxicological Research, and as a researcher in developmental and reproductive biology at the Primate Research Center at UC Davis. She is a member of the Teratology Society and Society of Toxicology.

For more information about the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment:http://www.oehha.ca.gov/

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC, is a food assistance and nutrition education program that serves more than half of all US infants, 25% of all children ages 1 through 4 years, and many of their mothers. Despite many changes that have occurred since WIC began in 1972, the WIC food packages remain largely unchanged. UC Davis Nutrition Department Cooperative Extension Specialist Dr. Lucia Kaiser (shown at right) recently served on an Institute of Medicine committee that reviewed the current WIC food packages and published a report with recommended changes. The full WIC Food Packages Report is available online.

The report recommends revisions to the food packages that match current dietary guidance for infants; young children; and pregnant, breastfeeding or postpartum women. In revising the food packages, the committee also had to consider cultural preferences and food availability across all of 50 states, US territories, and tribal lands. The new food packages would provide greater incentives for breastfeeding. They encourage low-income families to provide more fruits and vegetables to their children to establish healthy eating habits early in life. Using cash-value vouchers, WIC participants would be able to choose from a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. The new packages emphasize the intake of whole grains to increase fiber intakes, which are currently very low among the WIC-eligible population. In addition to whole grain breakfast cereals, many participants would also be able to choose whole wheat bread, brown rice, corn tortillas, oatmeal, or barley.

With the recommendations proposed in this report, WIC can lead the way in helping low-income families in America consume healthier diets.

Graduate student Camila Chaparro (shown at left) and Dr. Kathryn Dewey (shown below) are investigating an obstetrical approach to reduce infant iron deficiency and anemia, which can affect up to 50% of children in developing countries by one year of age. The timing of clamping of the umbilical cord at delivery has an important effect on a newborn's blood iron. If the blood from the placenta is allowed to flow into the newborn for 1-2 minutes before the cord is clamped, the iron contained in the additional blood makes a major contribution to the infant's iron reserves at birth. This could be critical for maintaining adequate iron status through the first 6 months of life, before other interventions to prevent iron deficiency and anemia, such as introduction of iron fortified foods, can be implemented. In many hospitals of many countries, in both the industrialized and the developing world, immediate cord clamping has become the norm.

Previous work done by Dr. Dewey and co-investigators in Guatemala showed positive effects of delayed clamping on iron status of infants at 2 months of age. However, it was not known whether this was a short-lived effect or whether this improved iron status would persist until later in infancy.

The study in Mexico, which is done in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico and a large obstetric hospital in Mexico City, enrolled 476 normal-weight, term infants and their mothers, who were randomly assigned to have immediate or late clamping of the umbilical cord. They were followed through 6 months of age, with information on the infant's diet, morbidity and growth collected at three time points, and hematological and iron status measured at the beginning and end of the study. Preliminary results show that late clamping significantly improved the iron status of infants at 6 months of age, especially benefiting infants who had not received any iron fortified formulas, and infants born to iron deficient mothers.

Because of the high prevalence of iron deficiency and anemia in infants and children and the detrimental effects of anemia on child development, interventions to prevent iron deficiency and anemia are a high priority. Delayed cord clamping is an especially appealing option because it can be easily implemented at birth at essentially no cost.

At left, research assistant Nadia Altamirano prepares to measure the length of one of our participants while his mother looks on.

Majors in the Nutrition Department are designed to provide a strong general and nutrition science background, and to afford students the opportunity to emphasize a specific area of expertise such as nutritional biochemistry, community nutrition or clinical nutrition. Additionally, students develop the analytical and critical thinking skills necessary for coping with a changing world. Seventeen of the forty-three 2006 Clinical Nutrition graduates have been accepted into accredited Dietetic Internship programs. Students with degrees in Nutrition find employment within a wide range of organizations. Employers include: medical facilities, research laboratories, biotechnology firms, government agencies, schools, pharmaceutical companies, and the food industry. Many of our graduates have continued their education and have gone into such diverse fields as dentistry, nursing, teaching, veterinary medicine, and law. Some students enter these programs immediately after graduation; others prefer to work for a few years and then return to school.

The Clinical Nutrition major qualifies students to apply for an American Dietetic Association "accredited internship," enabling them to become a Registered Dietitian, the professional credential necessary to work in a clinical setting. Once dietitians are registered, they generally seek employment in administrative, therapeutic, teaching, research, or public health/public service positions in clinics, hospitals, schools, or other similar institutions. There is a growing role for dietitians working in settings outside of the traditional hospital (for example, in health promotion activities for businesses and organizations, state and federal nutrition programs, nutrition education, Peace Corps and Cooperative Extension work). Students who complete the undergraduate preparation in clinical nutrition are also qualified to enter graduate programs in dietetics, nutrition science, public health nutrition, and food service management. A list of jobs held by alumni of the Clinical Nutrition program at UC Davis is available online.

The Nutrition Science major is excellent preparation for professional or graduate training in medicine, public health, or other health sciences. The nutritional biochemistry option also provides preparation for technical work in nutrition in the animal, food, and pharmaceutical industries. The community nutrition option prepares students for jobs in administrative, teaching, or public health/public service positions. A list of jobs held by alumni of the Nutrition Science program at UC Davis is available online.

UC Davis Nutrition Department students were the recipients of a number of awards in June 2005. Outstanding undergraduate student Hannah Mooney (shown at right) has been awarded both the Charles Hess Community Service Award and the Marie Taubeneck Memorial Award. Hannah overcame a number of family hardships while attending UC Davis due to her strong work ethic and went on to graduate with a B.S. in Clinical Nutrition with Highest Honors. She participated in a wide variety of volunteer activities as well as part-time work in the health promotion field. She will be completing her dietetic internship at UC San Francisco with career plans to practice as a Registered Dietitian and is passionate about combining her chosen profession and community service.

Graduate student in Dr. Ken Brown's Lab Studies Optimal Supplement Level for Stunted Children in Ecuador

Sara Wuehler, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Ken Brown's lab, is conducting a benefit-risk study in Ecuador to determine the optimal dose of zinc supplements for 1-3 year old stunted children.  Changes in growth and biochemical markers of zinc status are the major outcomes assessed during the six months of intervention.

Sara Wuehler is conducting the study in three provinces of Ecuador, including the coastal rain forest and both rural (Latacunga) and urban (Quito) sites in the Andean highlands. The purposes of the study are to: 1) define the minimum safe and effective dose of zinc supplementation for young children at risk of zinc deficiency, and 2) determine whether copper should be given along with zinc. After baseline censusing and anthropometric assessment, stunted children are treated for anemia and randomly assigned to treatment with daily, masked supplements containing 0, 3, 7 or 10 mg of zinc, or 10 mg of zinc with 0.5 mg copper. The children are then visited 3-5 times per week by a community health worker to supervise supplementation and record morbidity histories. Clinical exams and dietary, anthropometric, and biochemical assessments are repeated at intervals. Biochemical analyses include plasma zinc and copper, ceruloplasmin, ferritin, HDL and total cholesterol, hemoglobin and erythrocyte SOD. Metallothionein mRNA and certain zinc transporters are being measured in a sub-population. To date, 467 children have been enrolled, and 204 have completed the study. An additional 150-200 children will be enrolled before the study is completed in May, 2005

Joanne Arsenault, a graduate student working with Dr. Kenneth Brown in the Program in International & Community Nutrition, is carrying out a study in Peru to examine the effect of zinc, given either as a liquid supplement or as a fortified-cereal, on infant growth, morbidity, body composition, energy intake, and hormones that affect appetite.

Zinc administered in liquid supplements has been shown to have positive effects on growth and morbidity in children in developing countries. However, little is known about the health effects of additional zinc provided by a zinc-fortified food. In this study, infants enrolled at 6-8 months of age receive a liquid multivitamin supplement and iron-fortified, wheat-based cereal every day for 6 months. One-third of the infants receive zinc in the liquid supplement, one-third receive zinc in the cereal, and the remainder do not receive added zinc. The infants are visited 2-3 times per week in their homes by study personnel who monitor morbidity symptoms and consumption of the cereal and liquid supplement. Information on dietary intake is obtained by 12-hour observation and weighing of all foods consumed. The infants’ weight and length are measured and blood samples are collected at various timepoints. In a sub-group of infants, body composition and hormones affecting appetite are being measured. Approximately 260 children will have completed the study by November 2004.

Dr. Carl Keen, professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition, was one of six honored with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Award of Distinction at this year’s annual College Celebration. He received the award as “Outstanding Faculty.”

The award is the highest recognition presented by the college to individuals whose contributions and achievements enrich the image and reputation of the college and enhance its ability to provide public service. As chair, Keen has guided the department through a period of phenomenal growth over the past 11 years and established several endowments. Keen is recognized internationally for connecting basic science with applied industry needs. Keen received his bachelor's and doctor's degrees from UC Davis.

The new review body, known as the Collaborative Obesity Research Evaluation Team, or CORET, represents a collaborative effort between the University of California, Davis, and the Nutrition Institute NUTRIM at the Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands.

"There's a growing public realization that obesity is a killer disease," said Judith S. Stern, a UC Davis nutrition professor and obesity expert, who is co-chairing the project with George A. Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. Wim H.M. Saris will lead the effort at the University of Maastricht.

"Everyone -- moms making dinner, chefs choosing ingredients, reporters writing articles about obesity and policy makers writing laws -- wants to do the right thing, but there are many food myths, and it is almost impossible even for trained scientists to decipher just what the research is telling us," Stern said. "Our team is applying the rules of scientific method to evaluate individual published research papers."

The team's first goal is to establish criteria for evaluating scientific research papers. After that, the group will review research papers published in the scientific literature and post those reviews online. To visit the CORET Web site, go to http://coret.ucdavis.edu.

The review team's initial goal is to publish individual reviews on some 200 research papers over the next several months, releasing their findings as the papers are reviewed.

In addition to Stern, Bray and Saris, the initial team members are David Allison of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA); Myles Faith of the University of Pennsylvania (USA); Susan Jebb of the MRC Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge, (UK); Ross Pierce of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USA); and Stephan Rössner of the Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institute, (Sweden).

"We've been lucky enough to get some of the best and most independent minds to work on the project,” said co-chair George A. Bray. "All of us have committed to keeping the work unbiased and have agreed to abide by the rules we set out in our project's Terms of Reference, published on the CORET Web site. The scientists and the funders have pledged that no outside influence, review or other interference with the process shall be attempted or tolerated."

The CORET team expects to add two more expert panels, consisting of approximately 20 scientists, to the project.

Funding for this project has been provided through an unrestricted gift from a consortium of food-industry companies represented by an industry science panel and administered through the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the Confederation of European Union Food and Drink Industries (CIAA).

Media contact(s):
• Judith S. Stern, Nutrition, UC Davis, (530) 752-6575, jsstern@ucdavis.edu
• Wim H.M. Saris, Human Biology, Universiteit Maastricht, 31-(41)-388-119, W.Saris@HB.Unimaas.nl
• Pat Bailey, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu

To bolster the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ability to evaluate the safety of dietary supplements, a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies outlines a science-based process for assessing supplement ingredients, even when data about a substance's safety in humans is scarce. This approach to safety evaluation works within the regulatory parameters set by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which does not require manufacturers to provide safety data on their products. However, supplement makers, the public, and others need to increase their reporting of health problems related to supplement use in order to further improve the agency's ability to protect consumers, the report says.

"Approximately 29,000 dietary supplements are currently available to the American consumer, and while most are safe, questions have been raised about FDA's resources to identify and address the occasional problem products," said Barbara Schneeman, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor of nutrition, food science, and internal medicine, University of California, Davis. DSHEA established in 1994 that dietary supplements are to be regulated like foods instead of drugs, meaning that they are considered safe unless proved otherwise and are not required to be clinically tested before they reach the market. It is therefore up to FDA to determine whether a particular substance on the market is harmful based upon information available in the public domain. "In some cases, data on an ingredient's safety in humans are scant or nonexistent," Schneeman said. "Our report describes how other types of data -- such as the results of tests in animals, or information on similar substances -- can be used in a science-based approach to determine whether a supplement poses a significant risk to human health."

The process provides a way to identify supplement ingredients that may pose risks, prioritize them based on their level of potential risk, and evaluate them for safety. The report categorizes different kinds of data that FDA can use to assess safety and offers guidelines for determining the significance of the evidence available on a particular substance. Given that supplements are assumed, rather than proven, to be safe before they are marketed, FDA does not need direct evidence of harm to humans to take action; rather the agency must show that a product poses an unreasonable risk to users, the report says.

Data from animal studies and validated in vitro tests may provide enough information on their own to warrant FDA action, even without direct evidence of harmful effects in people, the report notes. Furthermore, historical use is not always enough by itself to prove the safety of a supplement, even if it has been consumed for centuries or used in folk medicine, the committee determined. And because changes in how an ingredient is formulated or processed raise the potential for new adverse effects, a reformulated ingredient should be subject to the same regulatory oversight as a new one.

While the process recommended by the committee is designed to help FDA set priorities and carry out evaluations even when data are limited, the report recommends that manufacturers and distributors be required by DSHEA to report adverse events to FDA in a timely fashion to facilitate safety evaluations. Not only do supplement manufacturers not have to conduct pre-market safety tests, they also are not required to collect and report any health problems that they discover once the products are on the market. Lack of reporting significantly hampers the agency's ability to actively monitor supplement safety, the report says. The Office of the Inspector General estimates that FDA receives reports on less than half of 1 percent of all adverse events associated with supplements.

To further boost reporting, labels on supplements should include a toll-free number for consumers and health professionals to call in health problems or concerns related to the product, the committee said. Labels also should include the name and place of business of both the distributor and the manufacturer so that problems can be traced more easily to their source.

In addition, although manufacturers need not seek approval to market a supplement, DSHEA does require them to notify FDA of their intent to introduce a new compound. During this pre-marketing review period, supplement makers and distributors should be required to provide the agency with all available safety data, both favorable and unfavorable, on their new products. This change would not mean that supplement makers would be required to conduct pre-market testing.

FDA must have adequate resources to support the increased workload that implementing a comprehensive safety evaluation process entails. Congress should provide the agency with sufficient funding to collect and analyze data and carry out the consumer protection and education responsibilities mandated by DSHEA.

Annual sales of dietary supplements in the United States are approaching $16 billion. An average of 1,000 new products are developed each year. Although manufacturers are restricted from claiming that using their products leads to therapeutic benefits, surveys show that many people take supplements for purposes such as treating colds or alleviating depression. According to other survey data, the majority of consumers believe these products to be either reasonably or completely safe.

The study was sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration. The Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Pre-publication copies of Dietary Supplements: A Framework for Evaluating Safety are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu.

(Article taken from the National Academies Web Site; Christine Stencel, Media Relations Officer, Megan Petty, Media Relations Assistant, Office of News and Public Information)

Dr. Louise Lanoue and graduate student Veronica Lopez are currently investigating why fetal heart development is impaired by maternal zinc (Zn) deficiency. When rat dams are fed a Zn deficient(Zn-)diet throughout pregnancy, a large proportion of fetuses show heart anomalies, particularly in the regions of the outflow tract and the great arteries, compared to Zn adequate fetuses (Zn+). A potential explanation may be that neural crest cells metabolism is affected by Zn; they are testing this idea using in vivo and in vitro models.

Neural crest cells (NCC) are located on the dorsal most aspect of the neuroectoderm. During neurulation, as the neuroepithelium closes to form the neural tube, NCC leave the neuroepithelium and migrate to specific regions of the developing heart where they contribute to the septation of the outflow tract into the aorta and pulmonary arteries, and the formation of the conotruncal portion of the ventricular septum and the heart cushions. Perhaps because of their pluripotent and nomadic properties, NCC are particularly sensitive to teratogenic insults, including Zn deficiency.

Using in vivo and in vitro models, Dr. Lanoue and Veronica Lopez, a doctoral student shown at left, have shown that Zn deficient rat fetuses show reduced expression of HNK-1, a marker for NCC, compared to Zn adequate fetuses. Using primary cultures of rat cardiac NCC, they have shown that Zn deficiency induced by the addition of an intracellular Zn chelator to the culture medium (TPEN) impairs NCC viability, morphology and motility in vitro. They are currently testing the hypothesis that the Zn-deficiency-induced effects on NCC may be mediated through a disruption of the cell architecture. They are looking at various elements involved in the organization of the cytoskeleton such as actin, Rho and tubulin.

Immunofluorescence detection of (A) actin filaments (in red); (B) the GTPase molecule Rho (in green); and (C) microtubules (in green) in cultured NCC (nuclei are stained in blue).

Dr. Francene Steinberg Studies Health Benefits of Dietary Phytochemicals

Nutrition and Animation: Students Can't Get Enough
A profile of Dr. Liz Applegate

Dr. Bo Lonnerdal Works to Create Infant formula that is More Like Breast Milk

Dr. Judy Stern Completes Comprehensive Weight Loss Study

Researchers Collaborate with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Dr. Kenneth Brown Chairs International Steering Committee

Researchers in Dr. Marilyn Townsend's Group Create Nutrition Education Curriculum for Students in California

UC Davis Student Nutrition Association (SNA) Welcomes New Members at Student Activities Faire