.jpg "Diana G. Carvajal-Aldaz, M.Sc. PhD photo")
Professor
Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador
I am a Professor at ESPOL’s Life Sciences Department in the program of Nutrition and Dietetics. My research is focused on knowledge, attitudes, and practices about nutrition and food safety, and intestinal microbiota changes associated with eating habits. During my Ph.D. training, I developed a background in molecular human nutrition, with specific training in vitro studies with pre-adipose rodent cells testing the effectiveness of biomolecules extracted from food to slow down or stop the process of differentiation into adipose cells. In addition, I have experience in vivo studies with different offspring of rodents to determine at the molecular level the benefits of consuming prebiotics such as resistant starch. I handle different laboratory techniques such as DNA extraction, real-time PCR, Western Blot, and fatty acid analysis, among others. I am in continuing collaboration with peer-reviewed publications that were derivate from the experiments I was involved in and in charge of as a graduate student. After graduation, I came back to Ecuador and had a slow start to my scientific career as an occasional professor for ESPOL due to maternity. Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador in the elaboration of the Intersectoral Food and Nutrition Plan 2018-2025 and the Manual for facilitators of the Food-Based Dietary Guidelines of Ecuador in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization. Additionally, I took several continuing education courses to improve my skills in human nutrition, such as a Certificate of Training in Research from the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND), Good Clinical Practice Training for Social and Behavioral Research from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and several courses about Evidence-Based Practice from ACEND, Critical Appraisal Skills Program in Spanish and Spanish Academy in Nutrition and Dietetics. Lately, I have been working on the application of surveys of knowledge, attitudes, and practices about nutrition and food safety in several populations to determine gaps to be improved with health education sessions. In addition, I assist in scientific projects in the planning and execution of the nutritional assessment in different stages of the life cycle, and statistical analysis of data in RStudio and SAS. In summary, I am a resilient and hardworking person, and I can work successfully in different scenarios of the nutrition field.
Ongoing projects that I would like to highlight include:
FCV-14-2021
Carvajal-Aldaz (PI)
January 2022 - Present
“Impact of the healthy breakfast program of the YO SIEMBRO foundation on the prevalence of malnutrition in children ≤ 5 years of age living in Guayaquil’s community of Monte Sinaí during the COVID-19 pandemic”.
FCV-38-2021
Ruiz-Barzola (PI), Role: co-investigator
August 2021 - Present
“Impact of the food and nutritional education program on the inhabitants of the Bellavista community at the Gulf of Guayaquil”.