About Us

Principal Investigators

Dr. Ji-Young Lee, FAHA, FACN

Dr. Lee is a Professor and Head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences. She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association as well as the American College of Nutrition. She was the recipient of the first Korean Nutrition Society Award selected by the American Society for Nutrition in 2011.  Dr. Lee’s research centers around identifying molecular mediators involved in energy metabolism, inflammation, and fibrosis, which mediate the health benefits of dietary factors, such as berries, carotenoids, edible algae, and seaweeds. In particular, her primary focus is linking inflammatory/fibrogenic signaling pathways to energy metabolism using state of the art molecular techniques and cell bioenergetics tools in cells and animal models. Studies on how dietary factors regulate histone deacetylases as an epigenetic mode of action to regulate gene expression in metabolic, inflammatory, and fibrogenic pathways are actively underway in her laboratory.

Google Scholar Biosketch

Dr. Young-Ki Park

Dr. Park is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. His research focuses on the role of natural products in the regulation of obesity-related metabolic and inflammatory diseases. In recent years, he has been investigating the health benefits of Connecticut-grown seaweed, such as sugar kelp, related to obesity, fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease, using pre-clinical models.

Lab Members

Current Members

• Rachael Woodruff, Nutritional Sciences
• Anqi Cheng, Nutritional Sciences
• Lorenzo Ross, Allied Health Sciences
• Emily McManus, Nutritional Sciences
• Broke Fay, Nutritional Sciences
• Molly Vanluling, Molecular and Cell Biology
• Olivia Corvino, Nutritional Sciences
• Dana Chamberlain, Nutritional Sciences
• Catherine Han, Biological Sciences
• Edward O’Neill, Molecular and Cell Biology
• Christian Caceres, Nutritional Sciences
• Ellen Harness, Animal Science
• Nicholas Farrell, Nutritional Sciences