Research Associate
Oregon State University
I am a Research Associate working with Emily Ho, Urszula Iwaniec and Russel Turner in the Linus Pauling Institute and the College of Health at Oregon State University. My research primarily focuses on how foods can prevent chronic diseases like cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. I have worked on a diversity of foods including broccoli, Brussel sprouts, collard greens, spinach, beets, almonds, walnuts, and alcohol. We have made discoveries about nutrients and dietary bioactive components from foods including sulforaphane, indoles, nitrate, nitrite, vitamin E and zinc. This research shows how foods, and the bioactive compounds they contain, can prevent cancer and oxidative stress, improve cardiovascular health and exercise performance, and can play an important role in achieving optimal health. Our work is also discovering how an individual’s gut microbiome may influence capacity to obtain healthful effects from food. Our work has also explored how the zinc content in the food we eat may make us less susceptible to environmental toxins.